PRESENTATION: David Hockney

David Hockney has produced some of the most vividly recognizable images of this century. His pursuits stretch across a vast range of media, from photographic collages to full-scale opera stagings and from fax drawings to an intensive art historical study of the optical devices of Old Masters. Like other Pop artists, Hockney revived figurative painting in a style that referenced the visual language of advertising. What separates him from others in the Pop movement is his obsession with Cubism. In the spirit of the Cubists, Hockney combines several scenes to create a composite view, choosing tricky spaces where depth perception is already a challenge.

By Efi Michalarou
PHOTO: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo Archive

The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo present the exhibition “David Hockney”, the first large scale solo exhibition in Japan in 27 years devoted to British artist David Hockney who is regarded as one of the most innovative artists of the postwar era. Hockney has produced diverse works in a variety of fields including painting, drawing, print work, photography, and stage design for over 60 years. Featuring a selection of 120 works including a number of the artist’s representative works produced in the UK and Los Angeles, the series of recent large scale paintings “The Arrival of Spring”, and a 90-meter long new work drawn using the iPad during the lockdown period for COVID-19, the exhibition serves as an opportunity to fully experience the world of Hockney’s oeuvre. This is Hockney’s first large scale solo museum exhibition to be held in Japan in 27 years, since his previous show in 1996. Measuring approx. 10-meters wide by 3.5-meters high, Hockney’s oil painting, “The Arrival of Spring, Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011(twenty eleven)”, created in 2011 in Hockney’s hometown in East Yorkshire in England, is exhibited for the first time in Asia. 12 large sized iPad drawings printed on paper are exhibited for the first time in Japan. Hockney’s remarkable works that dynamically capture the arrival of the vernal season through a rich sense of color are truly a sight to behold. Hockney, who turns 86 years old in 2023, continues to devote himself to producing works and further innovating his art. The exhibition introduces Hockney’s current life and practice, as an artist who has constantly been at the forefront of the contemporary art scene for over 60 years and remains on his pursuit to actively present new works. The new works produced during the COVID-19 pandemic, in a way that transcends differences in countries, cultures, and generations, contain messages that can be felt by us viewers because we are indeed living in the same age. We welcome visitors to take this opportunity to directly witness and experience the many works that can only be encountered in these very times. The exhibition consists of eight sections. In 1959, Hockney enrolled at the Royal College of Art in London. In an era when abstract expressionism and pop art were taking the Western art scene by storm, the young art student, who despite learning from various styles and artists had strived to develop his own means of expression without subscribing to a particular trend, soon came to attract attention as a visionary of the times. In 1964, Hockney moved to Los Angeles, where he painted pool surfaces reflecting sunlight and sprays of water from lawn sprinklers inspired by the relaxed and casual atmosphere of Southern Californian life. Hockney’s artistic attempts to capture the ever-changing reflections of light and movement of water have roused his interest for many years, leading to the exploration of new painting materials and forms of depiction. Hockney has also produced an extensive number of portraits. His “double portraits” featuring two figures as in his representative work “Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy” (1970-71) has become a signature part of the artist’s oeuvre. Hockney focuses on people with whom he has close relationships, such as family, lovers, and friends. These portraits reflect the artist’s calm and composed gaze, as he carefully observes those in front of him so as to even capture their very personality. Over the course of 15 or so years since 1997, Hockney has continued to depict the nature and sights of Eastern Yorkshire where he had spent his childhood. As the title suggests, “Bigger Trees Near Warter Or/Ou Peinture Sur Le Motif Pour Le Nouvel Age Post-Photographique” (2007) is a landscape painting of a massive scale produced through the method of painting en plein air (‘in the open air’) in oils on multiple canvases in front of the trees that serve as its motif. Furthermore, the iPad, which Hockney acquired as soon as it was first released in April 2010, opened up new frontiers for his artistic practice. Composed of large scale oil paintings and iPad drawings, the series “The Arrival of Spring, Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011” conveys Hockney’s outstanding ability to engage with a world that dramatically changes day by day and depict its transitions and transformations to utmost detail. Since 2019, Hockney has been working in Normandy in Northwestern France. As the world came to a standstill due to the unexpected outbreak of an unknown infection, Hockney, who was living in a remote region and found himself little affected by such circumstances, continued to turn his gaze to the nature that surrounded him and the changing seasons. This ultimately led to the production of the ambitious 90-meter long masterpiece, “A Year in Normandie”. This exhibition serves to trace Hockney’s practice as an artist who attempts to earnestly capture the familiar everyday life that unfolds before his eyes and openly share those observations with others.

Photo: David Hockney assisted by Jonathan Wilkinson, 25th June 2022, Looking at the Flowers (Framed), 2022, Photographic drawing printed on 5 sheets of paper, mounted on 5 sheets of Dibond, 299.7 x 518.2 cm, Collection of the artist © David Hockney assisted by Jonathan Wilkinson

Info: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 4-1-1 Miyoshi, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan, Duration: 15/7-5/11/2023, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, www.mot-art-museum.jp/