David Hockney: A Bigger Picture..

After seeing the gallery of photographs at the Natural History Museum, I then moved onto the Royal Academy of Arts. Here was the brand new exhibition to the public eye of David Hockney's most recent work which also included some of his old popular studies. I thought it would be a good idea to look out of my medium for a change, I had heard and researched David Hockney previously in my last year of A-Level art but didn't know too much about him. I knew the majority of people either loved or hated his work style. It was a brand new exhibition that only opened its doors the day before I went to look, no wonder why it was so busy. I was very lucky to have even seen the exhibition because many of the insurance groups did not want to cover the cost of so many of his works. I found out near the end it was funded by the government and there was huge security inside. Luckily I managed to sneakily get some photographs on my phone without them knowing.

One of the many postcards I picked up at the David Hockney Exhibition.

I bought a set of postcards at the end of the visit in the shop. I felt I wanted to take a bit of something away to remind me of what a brilliant time I had looking at the gallery. The postcard I scanned in above was by far my most favorite pieces of oil on canvas I saw at his gallery. Much of his work like this was on a vast scale and consisted of 8 canvases. They had been all placed together and the lines between them acted as a structure. This went and fitted along side with the many lines used upon his paintings to draw the viewers eye around the composition. Each canvas was 91.4 x 121.9 cm. This particular piece was created in 2007 and entitled "Three Trees near Thixendale". It was hanging in the first room as part of a series of seasons. I thought this nevertheless resembled my favorite time of the year when the trees are bare. Much of my A-Level and this years work had focused on bare lonely trees. It was incredible to be able to stand half a meter away from the paintings, you could even witness his brushstrokes.

The second set of imagery that I managed to capture on my phone was in room 4. This consisted of wstercolours and first oil paintings from observation. This was in contrast to much of his old work when using photography as a medium and then painting from that. His study of the historical use of lenses and mirrors led him to argue that the camera has influenced the composition of paintings for the past six centuries, an insight that is important to understanding these first Yorkshire works painted from observation. This is interesting because I agree with him. A photograph whether it is digital or film would never look the same as real life. It is similar to viewing a painting from a book or online, it doesn't compare to anything as seeing it for real; hence this was why I was blown away with his exhibition. I think it really worked well with having two types of series' next to each other because one set was very subtle and this set that I photographed was very bold and vibrant. I could see myself being really influenced by this guy, I had previously done art from photographs in the landscape and a huge interest in trees and other parts of the countryside had inspired me upon my photography.

"The Arrival of Spring" theme consisted of a wide range of work from oil to iPads.

The next room was all about "The Arrival of Spring" in East Yorkshire in 2011. This consisted of 51 large scale paintings done in oil. This also consisted of some iPad drawings done each day of one of the months. I was particularly interested in this very large painting which was placed on centre stage. The canvases just show how big they are when placed next to the people. I believe this painting was called "Tunnel" because he was fascinated by the dense growth of the trees enclosing the track to create a covered walkway. Many of Hockney's paintings are bold and vibrant and consist of a path or lines that take your eye throughout the composition.

A series of short films created by David Hockney and his nine cameras.

In the final space of the 13 rooms was a a film based recording. Hockney drove slowly through areas of woodland in Yorkshire with nine cameras  attached to the bonnet of his jeep. He directed the film from the back seat using a grid on nine monitors to "draw" a scene. The screens here are shown paired together across eighteen screens. Every camera was very different and did not connect to the one surrounding it. It gave different points of perspective to the scenery to enhance the view. The film was very unusual, and took time to try and figure out how and what it was all about. He carried on with a similar theme of seasons as shown above but also took a modern take on things and did a film showing some people dancing. Very unusual and a great way to end the exhibition.

This was by far one of the best art exhibitions I had ever seen. Even though I did not know much about him before I now know a lot more about his ideas and why he creates his simple childlike paintings that people either love or hate. Is this just because Hockney has made a name for himself? Anyhow, the exhibition inspired me even though it is a varied medium to what I am doing at the moment. I was interested in the way in some rooms he was looking at the life of trees and then in the next he was painting trees that had been cut down. This is similar to some of my darkroom work that I did this year as in the same composition I am contrasting the life and death of two trees. In another image I am debating to myself whether the tree had naturally fallen over or man had cut it down.