STROKES OF GENIUS

At age 79, David Hockney is more prolific than ever, embracing new technologies while continuing to explore traditional genres in his works.

Portrait of Tammy Strobel
At age 79, David Hockney is more prolific than ever, embracing new technologies while continuing to explore traditional genres in his works.
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Picasso. Matisse. O’Keeffe. The list of revered artists who created some of their best work into their old age is long—and, frankly, inspiring. Matisse, for example, started producing his famous cut-outs in his seventies, during what he calls his “second life.” As he enters his eighth decade, David Hockney has also picked up some unlikely new tools. 

Step into the first hall of the British artist’s new solo exhibition “David Hockney: Current,” at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne and you’re greeted by walls lined with iPhones and iPads. Each of these gadget displays hundreds of digital and animated drawings sketched by the artist. Yes, the same invention that has been blamed for bringing chats over dinner to a halt has been used by Hockney to create a conversation. 

“Drawing was going out of style… I’m amazed it’s a telephone that can bring back drawing. I thought it was very funny,” quips Hockney in a video interview with Simon Maidment, senior curator of contemporary art at the NGV. Be it iPhones, Polaroids in the ’80s or fax machines in the ’90s, Hockney has always experimented with new technologies as they emerge. “David is an innovator, he’s someone who challenges himself; looking to adopt new technologies if they can further [his work] in a significant way,” says Maidment. 

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There are over 1,200 works in the exhibition, spanning the past decade of the artist’s career; and each of them reflect his continued drive and dedication. Bigger Trees Near Warter is a 4.6m-by-12m painting composed of oil on 50 canvases—Hockney’s largest work to date, it was an ambitious undertaking that the artist executed at age 69 by painting en plein air (in the open air), using photographs and computer mosaics to assist his completion of the work. In The Four Seasons, Woldgate Woods, a car was set up with nine video cameras on one side then driven through the woods—once per season. Shown in a dark room on four video panels composed of nine screens each, the immersive work illustrates how the artist chooses to revisit the same genres—landscapes, portraits, still-lifes—in new, technologically complex ways; exploring ideas of space and time across different formats. 

Hockney often chooses to depict subjects near and dear to him—from images of his home county of Yorkshire in The Arrival of Spring, to portraits of friends like Celia Birtwell in 82 Portraits and a Still Life. In doing so, he invites us to think about everyday things in a different, more appreciative light. “Lots of people tell me I made them look at trees again… They hadn’t noticed them or took them for granted, or thought they were all the same. But trees are like an individual person, each one is different. Everything is, in nature.” 

In  his  interview,  Hockney  reveals  why  he  never  stops  experimenting. “I  never  spend  much  time  looking  back.  Painters  live  in  the  now,”  Hockney  says. His never-ending curiosity and unending passion for his craft are testament to that.

“David Hockney: Current” is on at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, until 13 March, 2017. Visit http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au

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