Review: David Hockney

A retrospective exhibition on David Hockney has recently opened at the Tate Britain in London displaying a vast array of his work from different periods of his life. Born in 1937 in Yorkshire, Hockney is one of the most influential and iconic modern artists of recent times, still working now at the age of 79 from his studio in California on a wide variety of media, including some ground-breaking work on iPads.

The exhibition, which is largely arranged chronologically, shows his development as an artist right from his early days at the Royal College of Art, all the way to his contemporary work from the last few years. What strikes you as you walk through the multiple rooms is the incredible, eclectic variety of work on show in this exhibition; it genuinely could be the work of six or seven different artists. Yet, every piece you see is a Hockney, startling as it may seem given the stark contrast between the works.

It begins in his early days during which he produced somewhat controversial work focusing on phallic and explicit representations of homosexuality and underground scenes from his youth. Despite these works’ shock factor, he retains a light-hearted, sometimes sinister, sense of humour that makes them quirky and fun to look at. His style then quickly shifted to a much more pop-art-esque technique, demonstrated in the next few rooms, which he adopted when he moved to Santa Monica. Iconic paintings of sunny poolside scenes became typical of these Californian years and they are optimistic and warm. Stylistically, the way he captures the light glistening on the water in his own quintessentially ‘Hockney’ fashion is fascinating to see.

The next few rooms represent an abrupt contrast to anything he’d done before: one room is filled with beautiful sketches that show his raw artistic talent whilst another highlights his skill in a different medium: photography. The photography room is astounding; taking inspiration from Picasso and his iconic cubist style, Hockney used a polaroid camera to create “Cubist photos”, done by arranging multiple Polaroids into a collage portraying one overall image. Particularly striking are the works that depict his own mother and another of an elderly man taking a photo. They are immensely effective and the technique is an ingenious and alternative use of the Polaroid camera.

Instead of tailing off, which many an exhibition has done in the past, this retrospective then hits a crescendo with Hockney’s recent works. Moving back to Yorkshire, the artist decided to capture his beloved home county in a number of landscapes. What he created are a variety of utterly stunning, vivid portrayals of the English countryside in all its beauty. When questioned on his interpretation of naturalism, Hockey interestingly replied that naturalists aim to paint what they see, but often forget that what you see in front of you isn’t as beautiful as what it all represents. As a result, he paints to celebrate the beauty of his landscapes, making them even more dazzling than perhaps the naked eye can imagine. This results in happy, colourful and exquisite canvases of English scenery that provoke a smile in any viewer.

All in all, it’s an incredible exhibition celebrating an immensely talented artist, and one who continues, even today, making some of the world’s most magnificent works. It’s on until 29^th May 2017 at the Tate Britain, get yourself down there.