WHAT: David Hockney’s “A Bigger Picture”
WHEN: January 21-April 9, Sunday-Thursday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Friday 10 a.m.-10 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.-10 p.m.
WHERE: Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London
WHY THIS SHOW MATTERS: After returning to his native Britain, Hockney is turning his brush to the dynamic seasonal landscapes of East Yorkshire. On large, multi-paneled canvases, he paints the vivid agrarian countryside in a rainbow palette. Still, the artist hasn't totally retreated into traditional mediums — the exhibition will also feature his newest iPad drawings and a film created with 18 separate cameras. While the sun-drenched valleys of Southern California have captured Hockney’s eye for many decades, he turns a new page by simultaneously embracing old-school oils and the hottest digital technology on the market.
His woods are anything but deep, dark, and filled with the dangers of Grimm’s fairy tales. They are, however, quite fairy-tale like: imbued with candy colors and the perfectly captured spectrum of sunset breaking through a dense line of trees. “Winter Timber” (2009) and “The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) – 2 January,” while true to his distinct style, have a magnificent stillness in their size and detail, much like the natural woodlands themselves. The two paintings are examples of the way in which Hockney views his materials as interchangeable. He bounces back and forth between venerable oil painting and iPad renderings effortlessly, although his trees and grasses never loose their luster either way.
To see images from David Hockney’s “A Bigger Picture” at the Royal Academy of Arts, click on the slide show.
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