Hockney stops at LACMA for a new exhibition

Hockney arrives Wednesday at LACMA. More LA Observed photos are on Instagram.

David Hockney was at LACMA on Wednesday for the U.S. premiere of an exhibition of 82 canvas portraits of friends, other artists and acquaintances that he mostly painted while they sat in the same chair in his Hollywood Hills studio. The exhibition 82 Portraits and 1 Still-Life opened in London at the Royal Academy last year and was also shown in Venice, Bilbao and Melbourne. The LACMA show (which runs April 15 through July 29) will be the only U.S. presentation.

Hockney spent the day at the Wilshire Boulevard museum on Wednesday for a luncheon with many of the subjects who sat for portraits and for an evening reception. One of the sitters was Stephanie Barron, the senior curator of modern art at LACMA who brought the exhibition to the museum. She is a longtime friend and colleague of Hockney's and welcomed him on Wednesday evening.

Hockney, who is 80, was born in Britain and moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s, famously falling in love with the city's light, the beach, the swimming pools and the men. He became one of the city's most prominent artists and also remains the "best-known living British artist."