David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (Not Smaller & Further Away) – Review

Immersive art shows have a chequered reputation, but Lightroom’s collaboration with David Hockney is something of a triumph. Perhaps it is that Hockney often works in light (quite literally, given his now famous iPad “paintings”). Or perhaps it is down to Hockney’s advantage over Van Gogh, Monet and the rest, for, as the artist himself observes, “they’re dead and I’m alive.”

The often animated projections, covering four walls and the floor, are on a continuous 50-minute loop so, as Lightroom CEO, Richard Slaney tells us, “It’s impossible to turn up late for this show.”

Insofar as there is a beginning, we open with the vibrant commissions Hockney devised for some of the great opera houses of the world. Sets and backdrops (here often animated to add to the fun) for Mozart’s Magic Flute, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Puccini’s Turandot, among others. (Children under 2 can enter free – and for once, I’d recommend it for such tots – but ear muffs might help for the opening musical accompaniment which is, well, operatic!).

With very few exceptions, one connective tissue between all true artists is an insatiable curiosity about the world and their own craft. Hockney is forever examining, reflecting, experimenting. Having drawn pictures since he was “tiny,” he relocated to Los Angeles aged 24 (without knowing anyone there) and declares it to be, “three times better than I’d imagined it to be.” (Yorkshire folk eat yer hearts out!)

The light and the freedom, the straight lines of the city and “squiggly lines” of the hills and canyons inspire him. His painting style develops, but he also makes art with film and photography. There is no doubt, though, as to his true love.

“With photography, you’re not really looking but, when you’re drawing, you’re always looking… You’re always seeing more, and that’s exciting to me.”

Despite this view, Hockney has experimented extensively with photography, seeking both to imbue the medium with a sense of time and to exploit its instantaneous nature to construct new approaches to perspective.

Two elements of his LA work feature strongly, with the artist providing an illuminating gloss via voiceover. His “Pearblossom Highway” piece (1986) defies conventional ‘architectural’ perspective, while his photographic collages seek to introduce a sense of time into the medium. Time is also at the heart of his recurrent Pool paintings – each treatment offers a new vision, aiming to bring water to life, to help us see beyond the surface of this restless element.

Back in Europe, be it Yorkshire or Normandy, Hockney encourages us to look at nature.

“You can’t be bored in nature, if you really look. But you have to really look.”

His multi-camera studies of the Yorkshire Wolds (shot painstakingly over all four seasons), once more foreground time and perspective (as well as being stunningly beautiful), while his iPad paintings of Normandy, building stroke by stroke, allow us to see an artist at work.

“Each brushstroke is recorded, so you’re watching me paint.”

Like the art world’s very own Don Quixote, David Hockney charges at the twin despots of Time and Perspective. Unlike Cervantes’s noble heroic failure, Hockney wrestles notable victories over these foes.

The show is a delightful cascade of colour, careful observation, thought and playfulness. I feel I understand the man and his work all the better now, and will value both all the more in consequence.

“I want my art to be joyful, actually.”

And after 60 years of working, Hockney’s closing observation is punctuated with a happy laugh:

“I’m still enjoying it, enormously!”

I have a feeling, so will you.

David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (Not Smaller & Further Away) is at Aviva Studios from 10 December 2024 to 25 January 2025.