PRESENTATION: David Hockney-20 Flowers and Some Bigger Pictures
David Hockney known for bold colors and landscapes, has long been interested in the technology of art and using new media to make art. He wrote a book about evidence that the old masters used devices liked a camera lucida. He has used Polaroid film, color photocopiers and fax machines, and in 2009, began sending friends daily drawings of flower bouquets made on his iPhone.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Pace Gallery Archive
Five of the world’s leading galleries are coming together to present “20 Flowers and Some Bigger Pictures”, an unprecedented international exhibition by David Hockney. The global exhibition will be jointly presented this fall and winter across five cities: Annely Juda Fine Art in London; Galerie Lelong & Co. in Paris; GRAY in Chicago; L.A. Louver in Los Angeles; and Pace in New York. The exhibition at Pace Gallery expands on a series of iPad paintings David Hockney made while quarantining at his studio and house in Normandy during the pandemic. Inspired by his daily observations, Hockney devoted himself to the iPad, a medium of unique immediacy that allowed him to be prolific in his depictions of his home, the changing seasons, and surrounding countryside. This show will mark Hockney’s ninth solo exhibition with Pace since his first major presentation with the gallery in 2009. This exhibition presents a distinct series of editioned and signed inkjet prints including five landscapes, twenty floral still lifes, and a composite of three iPad paintings depicting a bouquet of gladioli. These works reveal the presence of Hockney’s hand as well as his deliberate technique for drafting larger-than-life compositions on the iPad. While Hockney’s flowers capture the fleeting stillness of his subjects, his immersive landscapes establish the vastness of his rural surroundings. Whether bound to a single moment in time or created from multiple planes of vision, Hockney’s distinctive sense of time and space draws from art historical examples ranging from the Bayeux Tapestry and 17th century Chinese scrolls to the still lifes of Henri Matisse. A cornerstone of the series, Hockney’s landscapes call upon his observations of the changing of seasons. In each of his gridded picture planes, Hockney reimagines the Normandy countryside with bright colors, abstracted forms, and impossible angles of otherwise traditional outdoor scenes. Placing his focus on themes of renewal and rebirth, the resulting body of work reflects the pastoral nostalgia and beauty of the natural world. First reproduced by the German newspaper, Die Welt, and later debuted at Musée Matisse in Nice, Hockney’s series of twenty flower iPad paintings captures various arrangements of blooms set against a backdrop of gingham tablecloths and burgundy walls. Though attributes vary in each work, such as the species of flower, type of vase, and the color of the tablecloth, consistent elements across this series allow viewers to admire Hockney’s technique and dedication to his subject. Capturing a spectrum of floral compositions with contrasting tones and textures, Hockney displays his propensity for balancing the central artistic elements of line, color, and perspective. At the center of the exhibition, Hockney debuts his latest large-scale photographic drawing, “25th June 2022, Looking at the Flowers (Framed)”. Within the composition, Hockney is depicted twice – once on the right side of the scene, and once on the left – sitting in an armchair and looking upon his twenty flower still lifes displayed salon-style on a navy-blue wall. “This is photographic but is in no way an ordinary photograph,” Hockney describes. “I had been doing what I called photographic drawings, giving a much more 3D effect. This is because you have to look at these through time (unlike an ordinary photograph which you see all at once).” From a series of individual photographs, Hockney constructs a seamless panorama that defies the natural parameters of time and space. The photographic drawing pulls viewers into a self-referential world that is at once familiar and entirely new.
Photo: David Hockney, August 2021, Landscape with Shadows, 2021, Twelve iPad paintings comprising a single work, printed on paper, mounted on Dibond Edition of 25, 108.2 x 205 cm (42.5 x 80.75 Inches), © David Hockney, Courtesy the artist and Pace Gallery
Info: Pace Gallery, 540 West 25th Street, New York, NY, USA, Duration: 13/1-25/2/2023, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.pacegallery.com/
