Join Author Catherine Cusset as she launches her new book, a fictionalized biography of artist David Hockney.

Through a host of sources, including her personal meeting with Hockney, autobiographies, biographies, interviews, essays, films and articles, Cusset vividly pieces together the puzzle of the revered artist’s life and the enthralling stories that drove the creation of legendary works like “Portrait of an Artist”, painted in a three-month frenzy following a brutal breakup, and “My Parents”.

Life of David Hockney sheds light on the unbreakable spirit at the core of this living legend, who as a homosexual artist in a world where long-standing barriers had yet to be broken down, famously upended the norms of the art world, all through heartbreak and personal tragedy suffered in the wake of the AIDS epidemic. Cusset offers a window into Hockney’s rollercoaster love life as he shuttles between London, New York, and California, carving out a home in all three locales, whose spirit penetrates and contours his art. Here, we see Cusset, “transforming all the documentary material into a narrative that…shed[s] light on his journey from the inside by focusing on the links between love, creation, life and death.”

Copies of Life of David Hockney will be available for sale and signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.

6 pm reception/6:30 pm program

Free and open to the public. Registration required via ticketing or email: reservations@mercantilelibrary.com