Cathy's Art Diary

Mesmerising exhibition at Serpentine North of new work by David Hockney. The main work is a 90ft mural of ipad paintings done in the countryside around Hockney's home in Normandy during lockdown joined into one long work to document the year 2020. You walk round it and watch the seasons blend into each other. It reminded me of the market scene in Nottinghill. You saw the same trees with bare branches, blossom and fruit. The work had a similar effect on me as Antony Gormley's "Field" works or as I call them "The Little People" in that I found it very hard to walk away and leave it. The two central galleries and portraits from 2025 of people or abstract pieces on or behind gingham tablecloths. I loved one of one of Hockney's carers wearing a badge saying "End Bossiness Soon" which were for sale in the shop so I had to indulge. Stop Press : Since going to the show Hockney has sadly died. It felt like this was a very suitable show to be th...

Bold and colourful exhibition at Annely Juda Fine Art of new work by David Hockney. At first glance the works looked quite childlike and simple but their delight and artistry were in their simplicity. At 88 Hockney is limited in his mobility so he seems to be concentrating on the world directly around it and bringing to his images of it a sense of joy. The ground floor mainly featured multiple reworkings of domestic interior scenes. You became very fond of the blue gingham tablecloth. A number of the works which include a window or door inserted a photograph of the outdoor space in them. I loved the contrast this set up with the detailed photograph and the simplified painting. There were also six new portraits in his series of sitters in a chair including a self-portrait. Upstairs features night scenes which are surprisingly light and cheerful. My favourites were a series of four which included the side of a building with orange illuminated windows. I also loved one with a Chris...

Clever and beautiful small exhibition at the National Gallery looking at how David Hockney has been inspired by Piero Della Francesca. It brought together Francesca’s “Baptism of Christ” with two paintings by Hockney from 1977 in which it features, “Looking at Pictures on a Screen” and “My Parents” and hung them like a triptych. It did make you look more closely at all three. They were shown with archive material from the gallery around Hockney’s 1981 exhibition there in which “Looking at Pictures on a Screen” featured and including a letter from him to the gallery requesting private access to Van Gogh’s “ Sunflowers” and permission to photograph art works. I loved the reply from the then director denying the later due to how disruptive it might be. Oh dear I’d just taken at least one picture of each of the works in the show! This also made me think that the title of that “Looking at Pictures on a Screen” means something quite different now! Closed 27 October 2024 Reviews Ti...

Interesting exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of portrait drawings by David Hockney. It was a rerun of a show which was closed by Covid which I had managed to go to so check out my original review . When I now look at how much I was out and about in London on the run up to lockdown I amazed I didn’t catch the lurgy. This show was very similar, focusing on three friends plus his mother and self-portraits with an added section of portraits he did coming out of lockdown in his Normandy studio. There was a lovely sense the joy of being with people again but, from a couple where you know what the person looks like, I’m not sure they are particularly good portraits. Closed 21 January 2024 R eviews Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Tender exhibition at Charleston Farmhouse of drawings by David Hockney from the 1960s and 70s. The drawings recorded everyday life from friends and lovers, through interiors and still-lives.   Most came from private collections so this was a lovely opportunity to see them. At first I was wondering why Charleston had chosen to show them then realised the subjects are similar to those of the Bloomsbury artists who worked at the house. They looked at the beauty in the ordinary. I loved the close, quiet observation of detail. I think my favourite was an interior and view through a window of the Grand Hotel, Vittel from 1 970 but I also loved this 1960s LA one.  

Excellent installation at Lightroom exploring the work of David Hockney. It is an immersive show in a basement where the stunning images are projected onto all four walls and the floor. At first I found the fact there were a lot of other people there distracting but you soon filtered them out and it was actually quite sweet watching children interact with the film. The best thing was the commentary by Hockney explaining ways of seeing as images unfurled. There as   a wonderful bit explaining different perspectives where this Chinese scroll unwound and you were put into a Canaletto. Also sections on drawing and photography examining closer looking. I was surprised at the parallels between his Poloid collage of people and Freud paintings. There was a super section on his opera designs where you felt like you were in a theatre and animated figures walk and danced around the room at floor level. You did feel a little seasick after a while so I would advise changing where you a...

Joyful exhibition at the Royal Academy of new work by David Hockney. All the 116 works had been done on an ipad and then blown up to a large scale and displayed like Old Master paintings. They were all done over 6 months in 2020 when he stayed in Normandy during lockdown and recorded the landscape around him and the changes that Spring brought to it. You were hit by an amazing sense of colour as you walked into the room and his joy in the landscape. It was nice to gradually see trees and flowers coming back to life. You couldn’t help but be reminded of Monet’s series paintings such as the haystacks and Van Gogh’s pictures of blossom. I am not sure these were great works of art but they certainly have something to say about this strange period we have just been through and it’s wonderful to see an artist of 84 still experimenting with new techniques and tools. Closed 26 September 2021 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Charming exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at how David Hockney has used life drawing throughout his career. What made this charming was the show concentrated on just three people plus self-portraits. The self-portraits began and ended the show with rooms in-between devoted to Celia Birtwell, the designer and a life long friend, Gregory Evans, a x-lover and now a curator and Marcus Payne, a master printer Hockney has worked with for a number of years. There is also a small room devoted to vey touching drawings of his mother. I loved the pictures of Birtwell which incorporated her own designs and the commentary did talk about how the two artists influenced each other. It was beautiful to watch the sitters age and a lovely touch to end with a wall of drawings done them all less than a year ago. The drawings were beautiful, and it was clever to take one aspect of an artists work and use it to show the trajectory of their career however what I most took from it ...

Delightful new stained glass window at Westminster Abbey designed by David Hockney. This was unveiled a few months ago but this was the first time I’d seen it when a friend very kindly took me up to the new galleries. I’d not noticed it as we came in but he pointed it out to me from the gallery and its bright colours and modern design are very striking. It’s lovely to see such a new piece in this gothic setting and to see it shed coloured light over the rather nasty, busy visitors entrance. Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph

Vibrant and colourful exhibition at Tate Britain of work by David Hockney from throughout his 60 year career. The show was arranged well with themes which mirrored the chronology of the show. I liked the emphasis on how Hockney is using different techniques and ideas to look at how time and space can be captured in two dimensions. Although the show was busy when I went the works are large so people flow through well with few bottle necks and you get a good view of the pictures If you are patient. I thought the descriptions of the pictures could have been fuller but next time I go round I’ll take the tape tour which I suspect fills in some of the gaps. In the early rooms I was fascinated by his series “Domestic Scenes” which showed gay couples in domestic scenes, normalising the relationships at a time (1963) when homosexuality was still illegal. One lovely one showed one man bathing another wearing a short pinafore and socks. The light and colour in the fourth room sh...

Joyful exhibition at the Royal Academy of recent work by David Hockney. This was such a beautifully displayed show. All the portraits were the same size with the sitter on the same chair in the same space. They were hung round the room so the sitter’s heads were at your head height. It felt like being at a great party! The works were beautiful individual works as well. Somehow the sameness of the pictures makes you look hard at the differences and each showed an insight into the person. Some sitters sat back and looked relaxed, others leant forward as if they were talking to you. I loved the colours of the clothes. I particularly remember a lady in a wonderful long red skirt which had a Velazquez feel to the drapery. I also began to realise how many of the sitters were from the contemporary art world, not only artists but I recognised the names of dealers and gallery owners and even a publisher. This set will last, not only as a great art work, but also as a picture o...

Small exhibition at Tate Britain of three of David Hockney’s double portraits to mark the donation of one of them to the gallery in 2014. The donated one was of Wayne Sleep and George Lawson and it was shown with “Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy” and “My Parents”. I’d not realised before that Hockney was best man to Ozzie Clark and Celia Birtwhistle which explains why it is such a sympathetic picture of them. I couldn’t help but notice that in the picture of his parents they are sitting on the chairs we had in our kitchen at home! I love the touches of the Chardin book and the Della Francesca Baptism of Christ to include himself, an artist, in the picture by showing his influences. The Wayne Sleep and George Lawson picture was unfinished and has a more blocky composition but I love the stance of the dancer leaning against the door in contrast to the more sombre seated figure. Closes autumn 2016

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...

Interesting exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery looking at David Hockney’s work in prints throughout his career. I liked the way it split the show into etchings and lithographs and explained both techniques which made you focus on how he worked differently in each style rather than just thinking about how his general style changed over time. Also liked the way it showed sets of prints such as the Rakes Progress from 1963.    My favourite set was as illustrations to poems by C. P. Cavafy which were basically prints of men in bed together which may or may not have been done as a gay rights statement. Either way they are lovely gentle rather sweet pictures. There were some great still lives and I liked the wall of lithographs of flowers in vases from various stages in his career. Reviews Telegraph Independent Evening Standard    

Magical exhibition at the Royal Academy of recent works by David Hockney. Despite going on the last day the pictures managed to almost control the crowds. Luckily they were works to view en mass not necessarily to study each brush stroke in depth. There was a tremendous sense of colour. I started off feeling that he had seen a different Yorkshire to me but when you watched the video near the end you realised these were the colours of the countryside on a sunny day. I loved the room with multiple sets of small pictures which picked up on common colours but had different scenes sometimes mixing deep landscapes with close of flowers. Reviews Times Guardian Daily Telegraph Independent Evening Standard