David Hockney : Painting and photography

Colourful and interesting exhibition at Annely Juda Fine art of recent work by David Hockney.

This was a mix of paintings and collaged photographs which were exploring perspective. He used photos with more than one vanishing point which created a strange disjointed effect but made you look round the whole picture. He also used the technique of placing people very close to the plain of the photo to draw you in.

The paintings were of the same subjects, such as card players, exploring traditional perspective techniques but almost exaggerating them so they were wrong. For example there was a picture of a chair which used the trick of making the front seem wider than the back to give perspective however when you looked at the real chair next to it you realized this is not how you see it.

I also like the fact that the paintings appeared in the photographs which created a sort of narrative perspective. I loved a set of paintings of the studio from different angles which then placed the copies of one of the pictures in the next. I spent ages trying to work out which one might have come first!

This was an exhibition about the series rather than any individual work being a master piece. It was exploring an idea and was fascinating. I had not been to this gallery and the top floor was a wonderful space filled with natural light from above which was perfect for the bright colours in these pictures.

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