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| David Hockney: The Big Hawthorne, 2008 Oil on 9 canvases |
David Hockney is considered by some art critics as the greatest living artist, a claim he refutes. You may think the landscape genre is worn out but speaking to the BBC, he argued that the landscape is always fresh but we need to look at it in a different way.
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| David Hockney: A Closer Winter Tunnel, February - March, 2006 Oil on 6 canvases |
His unique way of looking at it reveals an emotional engagement with the landscape he knew in his youth, examining nature's impermanence and ceaseless change, from daily variations in light to weather conditions.
He captures the cycles of growth and decay as the seasons change, observing intensely his surroundings and depicting them from within, merging himself with them.
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| David Hockney: Winter Timber, 2009 Oil on 15 canvases |
This is the first major exhibition in the UK to showcase David Hockney's landscape work, inspired by the Yorkshire countryside. I particularly love the 'arrival of spring' (9), it's breathtakingly beautiful!
But my favourite painting is from the 'Woldgate Woods' (6), the one depicting Autumn with its amazing colours, there's a certain warmth emerging from it with an almost overwhelming intensity.
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| David Hockney: Woldgate Woods, 21, 23 & 29 November 2006 Oil on 6 canvases |
I also find fascinating that an artist who was born in 1937 embraces new technologies with such an enthusiasm, digital videos are displayed on multiple screens filmed simultaneously using nine and eighteen cameras, providing a spellbinding visual experience.
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| David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 iPad drawing printed on paper |
And his mastery of the iPad enabled him to further explore his fascination with examining the same place at different times of the day and year, capturing the dramatic modulation of light and the changing seasonal conditions. If you don't have any plans for the weekend, this exhibition is definitely worth seeing!
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| Royal Academy of Arts |
David Hockney: A Bigger Picture
Royal Academy of Arts
21 January - 9 April 2012
Other related posts:
Chihuly: Colourful Glass Dreams
Yves Saint Laurent: Life, Love and Art
For the Love of Art: Frieze Art Fair