The David Hockney exhibition, ‘A Bigger Picture’ at the Royal Academy from the 21st January to the 9th April 2012.

When I think of Hockney’s paintings I imagine the crisp lines of LA architecture, the block colours of swimming pools and the light flooded montages of the Californian desert. The new exhibition at the Royal Academy celebrates Hockney’s return to the landscape of his childhood, the not so sunny and glamorous East Riding of Yorkshire. His seaside home of Bridlington is a far cry from the paintings of the Grand Canyon and Mulholland drive with the weathered beach huts and gaudy arcades replacing the epic scenery and minimalist mansions.  The exhibition sweeps from his American landscapes through his large Yorkshire paintings and finally to his ipad images. It gives you a sense of an artist developing in skill and maturing in interests whilst returning to his roots.

His Yorkshire landscapes show an extraordinary eye for detail and a pensive quality, focusing on light moving through the landscape at different times of day and year. By painting the same scene in each season, Hockney illuminates the brilliant changing colours and forms of the land and trees. However, Hockney’s landscapes have not recoiled into the safety of the chocolate box image with pastel colours and feathery skies. The jarring colours and stylistic forms of the furrowed fields and bulbous bushes create a wonderfully original depiction of the countryside. Hockney also toys with the viewer’s sense of perspective, directing the eye through the painting and cutting his large pictures into a grid of small canvases to suggest how we view a scene in fragments. 

One thing I am always interested in when I go to exhibitions is to look for those people discreetly sketching, in the corner, quick caricatures and rough likenesses of paintings. Prying over the shoulder of one particular man I couldn’t help but notice that he was meticulously sketching out the details of a Hockney painting onto his ipad.  Looking around the room it struck me that all the Hockney paintings in there had in fact be drawn on the ipad. Although many may be dubious about this medium as new vehicle for art, the pictures were undoubtedly beautiful, detailed and effective. In fact, it was only when seen at close proximity that you could detect the flat colours and pixelated forms. Forget any primary school foray on Paint, these images were mini 
masterpieces, exquisite little excerpts of the Great British countryside for the Apple generation. 


The exhibition is a wonderful display of British art at its best. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the British painting tradition died with the rise of Tracey Emin and other YBA’s, it is still alive, evolving and highly relevant to contemporary life. If you can cope with the jostling crowds and the heaving gift shop it really is a wonderful way to brighten up these winter months.


Ernest 


Images courtesy of Royal Academy Online