David Hockney

I had been waiting for good two months from securing a ticket to see 'David Hockney: A Bigger Picture', an exhibition held in the Royal Academy. We are in its final week now so I am happy I did not miss this event.

All I can remember is the colour and the amazing space of the Academy that was filled with Hockney's work. No matter where I stood, no matter from which angle I looked and where, I was drawn into the vast space by the saturation and the artistry of every painting on display.

Some of the long walls were covered by individual pictures in e.g. 11 x 4 formation. Some rooms would have the same scene throughout the year on four walls so all you can do is stand in the middle and rotate around your own axis (an exercise I did in more rooms) when all rooms would explore the places David Hockney has live in; his native Yorkshire, open spaces around Los Angeles, seaside town of Bridlington and more.

What I enjoyed noticing was the difference between his studio and on-location paintings.


When on location, a certain depth is added to the works. The individual paintings reveal more shadows and in the works put together from six or more panels, one has to admire the imperfect precision with which they are joined. A language has been created here.


I cannot help but make connection to 'Fauvism', a short-lived style of early 20th century. In Fauvism the emphasis was put on strong colours (if you see yellow paint saturated yellow, if you see red make it strong red,...). This is what I see in David Hockney's paintings. I watched a documentary program where we were allowed to see the actual locations and I must say, Hockney's approach and outcome is more interesting, more eye-catching.

How many times do you see a purple trunk of a tree? Yet, in this picture it looks in place. This is the artistic vision, this is why we have heard about David Hockney for the past 50 years (so far).

And it is not only the paintings or watercolours, it is also his photomontages or more recent iPad drawings or video-montages worth seeing. This I will leave to you to explore for yourselves. There is too much to cover.






Visiting the Royal Academy at 10pm (22:00) when the place is still heaving with people says something about the artist. I am certainly looking forward to seeing more work by David Hockney. I am sure he has still a lot to offer. Kx