In 2002, artist David Hockney returns to London from Los Angeles and re-engages with a subject that a full 30 years ago had inspired some of his most iconic images – like Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy. Now using watercolour, David Hockney paints 40 large double portraits over a four-month period, each done from life in a day. He calls them portraits for the 21st century.
Filmed behind-the-scenes in Hockney’s home and studio as he prepares for two exhibitions of the work, and using interviews with his family and his oldest or closest friends who came to sit for him, the documentary explores the personal and private nature of Hockney’s portraiture and creates an intimate psychological portrait of the artist as he paints the relationships in his own life.