We had an interesting last night in Santa Monica before flying home the next day. Dan Bachardy lives in Santa Monica and was Christopher Isherwood's (writer of Cabaret among other things) partner until Isherwood died. Barchardy was only 19 when he met Isherwood who was much older. He's a fairly famous portrait artist (his portrait of David Hockney is in the National Gallery) and I see Angelina Jolie commissioned him to do some nudes of her when she was pregnant. He' s in his 70's but was doing a sitting the day we met him so still an active artist. He's very fit, great person, and has a fabulous house over looking Santa Monica Bay.
View from Don's house at sunset.
David Hockney portrait of Isherwood and Bachardy
The reason we were there is Bernfried, who is organizing the Huxley conference this summer at the Huntington, asked me to take photos of six unknown photos that Bachardy had and that the Huntington now owns although they are still in Don's possession. These will be part of the conference. I'm not quite sure of copyright so I won't publish these on my blog but they are very interesting photos.
Don Bachardy ExhibitionAnd we finished off the evening having dinner with Derek who drove up from Laguna Beach to meet us!
