- (C) David Hockney: 'Bigger Trees at Warter' oil on 9 canvases, 2008 courtesy by Kunsthalle Würth
The Würth Kunsthalle in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany, shows the first larger David Hockney exhibition in Europe for years. It is focusing on Hockney's Yorkshire landscapes.
David Hockney gained popularity to a wider audience with his attractive Californian poolside paintings: On the surface, they only show expressionist paintings of beautiful houses and swimming pools. ('A Bigger Splash' in the Tate Gallery collection is probably the best-known piece of this series.)
However, there is more: The art school professor Hockney develops his paintings with classic problems of painting (perspective, references. art history ...) in mind.
This becomes especially clear in his less popular (cubistic) photo works: He constructs a a motif (landscape) out of a large number or small size photos from various angles, which he assembles to the image of the motif. This way he develops Picasso's and (Braque's!) idea of analytic cubism further into photography.
- (c) David Hockney: 'Cut Trees in Woldgate' oil on 2 canvases of 2008 courtesy by Kunsthalle Würth
This exhibition is about landscape painting. Until recent years, Hockney has never been recognized for painting the landscape of the region where he was born: Yorkshire. He was known for Californian highways or the Grand Canyon.
Now he is applying his wide array of techniques on his home region:
- (C) David Hockney: 'Woodgate Woods III' oil on 6 canvases photo by Richard Schmidt courtesy of Kunsthalle Würth
For ‘Woldgate Woods III‘, he is using six smaller canvases to construct a large painting. However, on each canvas he changes the perspective slightly. This way the eyes can move through the landscape themselves.
Annely Juda Gallery in London simultaneously shows David Hockney's facsimile works.
by UGL.
Kunsthalle Würth, Bad Schwäbisch Hall, Germany, from 27 April to 27 September 2009
Read more about art cologne 2009
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