LARGE -VERY LARGE INDEED
By the time I had left the Picasso it was after 1-30. This left me another two hours to get to the David Hockney and then onto Meldreth to visit my «ex-belle famille» and closest friends.
So a taxi it was.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I arrived at the Royal Academy of Arts some ten minutes later. The entry queue was outside the academy and veering dangerously around the corner. Thank goodness for my ICOM card as otherwise I would never have got in. Four hours to queue, I was told ? Never.
But in I went and before 2pm was with hundreds of others viewing what is LARGE, very large.
I had seen a retrospective of Hockney's work in the Beaubourg over ten years ago. There were gigantic paintings of "The Grand Canyon" which needed a lot of space to see them. Like the Beaubourg, there is not that much space to get away from such paintings in the Royal Academy. One of the reasons I love the M.A.M. in New York. Sometimes there are only one or two large paintings in a gallery.
David Hockney’s «A Bigger Picture» is a tribute to his love of landscapes in the Yorkshire Wolds. Most of the pictures on view were produced between 2004 and 2011 and many being shown for the first time. In fact some of the paintings were done specifically for the exhibition. «The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire (2011).
What fascinates me with Hockney outside his energy and prolific output, is his work on the Ipad. We had an exhibition of this at the YSL Foundation in 2010. He seems to work so fast that it is not surprising that he paints so much.
The picture that I have mentioned is one of a 52 part work and all the other Ipad paintings are on show in the same gallery The Ipad is, as Hockney says «faster than water colour». Speed counts with open air landscape! I frankly found the Ipad paintings more interesting than the other large landscapes. Probably because of the technique. Here was an artist of 74, one of Britain’s best, and who doesn’t use assistants to help him paint...(see "Dots and Diversion", 2nd Feb.) using a new technique with a very new «toy» . After all, the Ipad was only launched in 2010. It is worthwhile mentioning perhaps that he bought an Iphone in 2008 or 2009 and had drawn on it with his thumb sending streams of images to his friends on their ‘phones or by email. Rather like Picasso sketching on paper serviettes or on coffee cups in bars but such drawings disappeared. Hockney’s will live on!
Another fascinating high tech moment was his film using 9 cameras simultaneously. The result is like a moving picture but with no single perspective. You can choose the way you look - left is one scene but it’s the same with a different angle or season on the right. Quite a new way of looking at an artist’s image.
What fun too. I had not seen so many very TALL people for a long time. They towered over most of us and seem to blend into so many of the images as I strolled through 13 galleries.
Hockney’s work is easy to look at. Hence the crowds I would think. But it has to be looked at closely to see where each «part» of the painting is joined. Sometimes it is difficult to see. Sometimes a tree trunk doesn’t quite match up with the lower panel. Does it matter? Of course not !
I left with a David Hockney bag to put all the Picasso stuff in. This time though I renounced to the catalogue. THAT would have been overdoing it.
So a taxi it was.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I arrived at the Royal Academy of Arts some ten minutes later. The entry queue was outside the academy and veering dangerously around the corner. Thank goodness for my ICOM card as otherwise I would never have got in. Four hours to queue, I was told ? Never.
But in I went and before 2pm was with hundreds of others viewing what is LARGE, very large.
I had seen a retrospective of Hockney's work in the Beaubourg over ten years ago. There were gigantic paintings of "The Grand Canyon" which needed a lot of space to see them. Like the Beaubourg, there is not that much space to get away from such paintings in the Royal Academy. One of the reasons I love the M.A.M. in New York. Sometimes there are only one or two large paintings in a gallery.
David Hockney’s «A Bigger Picture» is a tribute to his love of landscapes in the Yorkshire Wolds. Most of the pictures on view were produced between 2004 and 2011 and many being shown for the first time. In fact some of the paintings were done specifically for the exhibition. «The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire (2011).
What fascinates me with Hockney outside his energy and prolific output, is his work on the Ipad. We had an exhibition of this at the YSL Foundation in 2010. He seems to work so fast that it is not surprising that he paints so much.
The picture that I have mentioned is one of a 52 part work and all the other Ipad paintings are on show in the same gallery The Ipad is, as Hockney says «faster than water colour». Speed counts with open air landscape! I frankly found the Ipad paintings more interesting than the other large landscapes. Probably because of the technique. Here was an artist of 74, one of Britain’s best, and who doesn’t use assistants to help him paint...(see "Dots and Diversion", 2nd Feb.) using a new technique with a very new «toy» . After all, the Ipad was only launched in 2010. It is worthwhile mentioning perhaps that he bought an Iphone in 2008 or 2009 and had drawn on it with his thumb sending streams of images to his friends on their ‘phones or by email. Rather like Picasso sketching on paper serviettes or on coffee cups in bars but such drawings disappeared. Hockney’s will live on!
Another fascinating high tech moment was his film using 9 cameras simultaneously. The result is like a moving picture but with no single perspective. You can choose the way you look - left is one scene but it’s the same with a different angle or season on the right. Quite a new way of looking at an artist’s image.
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| Woldgate November and December 2010 |
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| Woldgate Woods 2006 |
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| A closer Winter Tunnel 2006 |
Hockney’s work is easy to look at. Hence the crowds I would think. But it has to be looked at closely to see where each «part» of the painting is joined. Sometimes it is difficult to see. Sometimes a tree trunk doesn’t quite match up with the lower panel. Does it matter? Of course not !
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| Winter Timber 2009 |
I left with a David Hockney bag to put all the Picasso stuff in. This time though I renounced to the catalogue. THAT would have been overdoing it.
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