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Since 1960 David Hockney has charmed the world with his
Pop-primitivist paintings, which, never taking themselves too seriously,
evoke true feelings of nostalgia, tranquility and the propensity to
daydream. His exhibition 'A Bigger Picture,' focusing on the East
Yorkshire landscape, is spending the summer at the Guggenheim in Bilbao
after a successful run at the Royal Academy of Arts.
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Hockney, considered by many to be Britain's most famous living
painter, has become somewhat of a rebel from his refusal to rebel. As
hip artistic themes turned conceptual and hip artistic aesthetics turned
abstract, Hockney continued pursuing his passion for representational
landscapes, albeit with a twist. Fearlessly combining Cubism and
cartooning, art historical tradition and the latest Apple product,
Hockney's work is infused with tradition, yet he the cannon like a box
of crayons to be mixed and matched at will. His fearlessness and
capriciousness has kept his work informed and innovative for over 40
years.
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Most of the exhibition consists of recent landscape oil paintings in
massive scale, having been painted onto multiple combined canvasses.
Some are made of 15, others 30, all depicting a sharp-edged psychedelia
that evokes everything from Monet's haystacks to Roussea's lush jungles.
His acidic palette uses colors almost too bright for nature, that
primarily exists on digital screens.
Aside from his oddly fervent stand on tobacco rights, these days
Hockney is most known for his iPad drawings. The exhibition shows a
selection of the notorious works, although they are more difficult to
pick out than you may suspect. The smooth lines and bright hues
perfectly suit Hockney's signature style, making the decision less of a
gimmick and more of a wise progression. Apparently the Queen agreed, as Hockney rendered her portrait via iPad for her Jubilee last week.
While not everyone is a Hockney fan, it is undeniably that he has
managed to stay relevant and prolific for quite a while without really
giving a damn about what people think. The exhibition runs at the Guggenheim Bilbao until September 30.
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