Uno de los artistas más famosos y caros del planeta, David Hockney (nacido en 1937), ante el confinamiento impuesto a miles de millones de seres humanos como respuesta a la pandemia creada por el nuevo SARS-CoV-2, se encerró en la casa donde vive actualmente en Normandía, cogió un iPad y se lanzó a una de las aventuras digitales más fascinantes que se conocen: 116 cuadros que suman 174 metros de largo. Esta obra monumental recuerda, por un lado, a la aventura impresionista de Monet, y por otro, lleva en su concepción la fuerte impresión que le causó a Hockney su visita al famoso (llamado) Tapiz de la reina Matilde (1082-1096), un bordado sobre lino de 69,5 metros por 50 cm de altura que describe los acontecimientos previos a la conquista normanda de Inglaterra, que culminó con la batalla de Hastings. Ironía de las ironías, en lugar de una conmemoración bélica, pero ciertamente bajo el tremendo impacto de la guerra contra un virus global y mortal, la gran serie de pinturas digitales impresas de Hockney conmemora la vida. La vida, a pesar de las amenazas, naturales y humanas, sigue prevaleciendo. Siempre hay una nueva primavera después de cada invierno. Para ver en París y Bruselas, a partir de octubre.

DAVID HOCKNEY: “I didn’t stop painting or drawing, I just added another medium.”

Springtime with Hockney – what a glorious prospect! Just think of all those darling buds and greening hedgerows, dew on fresh grass, cherry blossom bursting into pink and white froth beneath brilliant blue skies: an ideal antidote to the winter’s lockdown. The subject matter of the artist’s new show is as simple as a child’s primer, and ought to spell out unqualified joy. But something stymies the pleasure of these images: namely, the method of their making.

In late 2019, at the age of 82, David Hockney moved to a timbered house in rural Normandy to observe the arrival of spring. He had already depicted the season’s wild beauty in his native Yorkshire with the magnificent charcoal drawings of 2014. Now he uses an iPad and stylus to make daily paintings of his French surroundings. The compositions are basic and stock: central tree, low horizon, distant hill, big bright sky; though the scene is occasionally viewed through an open door.

David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy 2020 review – pixels at dawn
Laura Cumming
@LauraCummingArt
Sun 23 May 2021 13.00 BST
The Guardian (read more here)

Spring will always come back

Four years after the exhibition devoted to him at the Centre Pompidou, David Hockney is coming to the Musée de l’Orangerie from October 13, 2021 to February 14, 2022. From the window of his house in Normandy, the painter tells of the tireless cycle of nature and the long-awaited arrival of Spring.

The ban on going out, gathering in groups, or crossing borders will never change one thing: the world continues to turn and the seasons continue to pass. Confined to his house in Normandy, David Hockney created a frieze painted on an iPad, measuring eighty meters in length and depicting the unchanging renewal of nature. While our modern world stands still, digital painting allows Hockney to quickly and accurately create more than a hundred images. From the nuanced shades of green in the trees to the flow of the river in its bed to the pop of flowers that spring with the arrival of the warm weather, the exhibition A Year in Normandy reminds us that after humanity, the world shall remain.

By Floriane Reynaud
1 Juin 2021
VOGUE (read more here)

Royal Academy of Arts, London

David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020

In the midst of a pandemic, David Hockney RA captured the unfolding of spring on his iPad, creating 116 new and optimistic works in praise of the natural world.

David Hockney RA is one of the most important British artists of the 20th century – and he remains one of the most inventive.

Throughout his career, he’s investigated new technologies and explored different ways to make art, beginning with his iPhone in 2007 before adopting the iPad and Stylus in 2010.

This new body of work – 116 works in total – has been ‘painted’ on the iPad and then printed onto paper, with Hockney overseeing all aspects of production.

As Hockney himself notes: working on the iPad requires the ability to draw and paint. Each work – which has been printed far larger than the screen on which it was created – allows you to see every mark and stroke of the artist’s hand.

Made in the spring of 2020, during a period of intense activity at his home in Normandy, this exhibition charts the unfolding of spring, from beginning to end, and is a joyous celebration of the seasons.

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If you haven’t been able to visit our David Hockney exhibition in person, here’s your chance to experience it from home. Make a calming cup of tea, press play, and enjoy the arrival of spring through Hockney’s eyes.

Royal Academy of Arts, London
Published 10 June 2021
See the Virtual tour here

La nueva casa de David Hockney

“Un año en Normandía”. Vista del estudio de David Hockney, mayo de 2021.

“Un año en Normandía”, 2020-21, friso pintado en iPad, presentado en el Musée de l’Orangerie del 13 de octubre de 2021 al 14 de febrero de 2022 como parte de nuestro Contrapunto Contemporáneo # 7.
© David Hockney

David Hockney is undoubtedly one of the most famous and multidisciplinary artists of his generation. He now lives and works in Normandy, where he spent much of 2020 creating The Arrival of Spring (currently on display at the Royal Academy in London) and the ever-changing lights of the Normandy countryside. Let’s take a tour of all the places associated with the modern master of colour…