City seeks waterfront showcase for Hockney

Consultants are to be commissioned to come up with “concept proposals” for a waterfront gallery in Hull, which will be presented to the artist later this year.

Coun Steve Bayes has met the artist twice – including flying to Bilbao to meet him at the opening of his hugely successful A Bigger Picture exhibition – to discuss the council’s hopes.

He said: “I put to him a document which suggests the council’s vision – he hasn’t said yes or no.

“If he’d said: ‘Stupid idea, I’m not getting involved,’ we wouldn’t be where we are now.

“All we can do is put forward our ideas and hope they strike a chord. We do have some waterfront estate and that’s what this next stage will look at – what water is available and where can it go.”

He said the venue would have to display some of the artist’s works, but could also explore the history of art and methods of painting dating back centuries, as well as possibly having a studio. Coun Bayes said: “A lot of art is not painting, it’s video, it’s film.”

Hockney’s Bigger Trees Near Warter, a mammoth painting spread over 50 separate canvases, drew more than 63,000 visitors to the Ferens Art Gallery in the city last year, smashing previous records.