BOOK:David Hockney A Bigger Book, Taschen Publications

The work of David Hockney doesn’t need introduction.  In the SUMO-sized David Hockney monograph, the artist takes stock of more than 60 years of work, from his days at the Bradford School of Art, through his breakthrough in ‘60s Swinging London, life by Los Angeles pools in the ‘70s, up to his recent extensive series of portraits, iPad drawings, and Yorkshire landscapes. David Hockney collaborated closely through all production stages and conceived of this book as a purely visual survey of 498 pages and  13 fold-outs with more than 450 works prefaced by a handwritten programmatic statement. As an artist who rarely looks back, the vast volume is as much his own personal review as it is a definitive record for art lovers all over the world. “I don’t tend to live in the past,” he comments, “Working on this book, I see quite how much I have done”. The book’s sumptuous portfolio is supplemented by an illustrated chronology of more than 600 pages, contextualizing Hockney’s art with drawings, graphic work, portrait photos, and text based on the artist’s own writings as well as reviews, the book includes also new works as: “The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate Wood”, “The Bigger Message”, and “Bigger Yosemite”. It also includes multiple-image galleries (spread over gatefolds) of some of his iPad drawings and self-portraits, plus film stills from the artist’s “Cubist” movies. Hockney’s own insight into this latest chapter of his career is found across the book’s pages and is accompanied by thoughtful commentary by renowned critic Lawrence Weschler and art historian Sarah Howgate. The book is presented on a Marc Newson bookstand. Available in Limited Collector’s Edition of 9,000 signed copies, each with a Marc Newson bookstand or in four Art Editions, each limited to 250 signed copies, coming with an iPad drawing and a Marc Newson bookstand.-Efi Michalarou