The Art of Looking

The Art of Looking

One of David Hockney’s favourite stories concerned a ceramic owl made by Picasso. Standing before it in contemplation, he would point out that a stuffed owl contains infinitely more information than Picasso’s sculpture. A stuffed bird preserves the details of plumage, coloration, and anatomy with scientific accuracy, while Picasso’s owl has none of those things. But in Hockney’s view, the artist’s rendition possessed something the stuffed bird l…