I am so grateful for having eyes to see beauty in everything, and nowhere more so then when I visited the DeYoung Museum to see The David Hockney “A Bigger Exhibition” last week.
David Hockney-A Bigger Exhibition at the DeYoung-from my instagram
My love affair with David Hockney and his art began in my teens. In fact, my first purchase of art for myself was a poster of his Palm Springs series for my room at home when I was 16.
David Hockney from his Palm Springs Series-image vie The I.B.Thauris blog
While his art seems to have a certain naiveté to it and appears to be deceptively simple, it is instead richly layered with colors and shapes. Both which I love. To me Mr. Hockney depicts how he see’s life, capturing our times perfectly through his medium, and is one of the most important and iconic artists of our times.
David Hockney records his road trip through the west with his Polaroid-image via the UK Telegraph
Along with drawing and painting in water colors and oils, he has always used the latest in technology to show the world how to see. Like the above piece which uses 100’s of polaroids to create the whole, while showing how the eye also see’s a small part or detail of a scene with each individual photograph.
David Hockney painting a relatively small piece-image via This Girl Lel
He has interpreted this creation of the whole by how the eye lands on each detail not only with photography, but also by layering multiple canvases, sometimes overlapping each other to create a life-size depiction of his view. Each canvas can stand on it’s own, but together form the whole.
David Hockney bigger then life pieces-image via Shapes of the 80s
And, as for using technology to paint in sweeping color, he didn’t stop with the polaroid. Today, in his 70’s, he has continued to incorporate the latest in technology using video, iPhone and iPad creating startlingly recognizable and beautiful pieces of art.
David Hockney, created on his iPhone-click this photo to see more iPhone pieces and hear an interview with the artist
Yosemite Landscape by David Hockney on his iPad-image via Shapes of the 80s
I love this quote by Hockney… “Canvas is so 20th Century”
To me this is inspirational on so many levels. One, it say’s that we are never to old to learn new things, and two, we get to choose how we view technology in all it’s forms. Hockney see’s the new and bends it to create his vision and for his use!
In a room with large scale video art by David Hockney-image via German “Bigger Exhibition”
No place was this more evident then when standing in a room at the DeYoung, surrounded by a series of 9-55″ TV screens on each of the 4 walls, depicting a video of a view of a road, each wall a different season! Everywhere you turned you saw the same scene, at a different time of year, moving at the same speed in the same direction. AWESOME to say the least.
As we entered the exhibition there was the same idea, a different scene from the one above. I shot a 9 second view of it in the video below. Understand that this is a cropped version, in size and length.
Mr. Hockney’s use of childlike shapes and brilliant colors makes my eyes sing, and his novel use of technology inspires me to constantly strive to see change differently and from a creative vantage point!
Are you a fan of David Hockney? Do you agree with my assessment of his importance in the art scene? I wish I could show you everything I saw! His art makes my eyes and soul VERY happy. Cheers
David Hockney image via Classic Driver from his British exhibition
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