David Hockney: Floral Arrangements
David Hockney Untitled, 20 May 2010 2010 © David Hockney
The full title of this exhibition is “David Hockney’s Fresh Flowers: Drawings on iPhones and iPads,” and one couldn’t imagine a more fitting setting than the Royal Ontario Museum’s Institute for Contemporary Culture exhibition space. The draw, on one level, is to see contemporary culture in the making as Steve Jobs’ popular brainchildren are put into action in an art setting that moves the yardsticks for what constitutes an artwork—in this case, each device is a container for art, possessing its own email address so that Hockney can send new drawings throughout the course of the show. There’s no conventional sense of art ownership here, either; six of the drawings can be downloaded to viewers’ devices throughout the run of the exhibition.
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David Hockney Untitled 2010 © David Hockney |
The high-tech delivery is in line with Hockney’s history of technical experimentation—with Polaroids, with photocopiers, with stage design, with video—and it will bring people into to the gallery to see the iPads as much as the art. It is important to also say, however, that it is a lovely drawing show. Hockney uses his iPad like a sketchbook for noting things and settings from daily life. The drawings are quick and vivid and full of a remarkable appreciation for observation. The backlit colours are jewel-like and Hockney uses their intensity again and again to pay homage to the traditional sources of light and colour—from dawning mornings to city nights to flickering candles to fresh-cut summer flowers. Some of the latter drawings rival the intimacy of Manet’s late flower paintings, but for Hockney, the flowers are mostly a metaphor for the gift of image making.
In the following audio interview, Hockney discusses his show with Canadian Art editor Richard Rhodes.
Audio Stream: David Hockney: Floral Arrangements
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David Hockney Untitled, 22 July 2010, No. 1 2010 © David Hockney |
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David Hockney Untitled, 8 June 2009, No. 2 2009 © David Hockney |
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