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Two blockbuster exhibitions dedicated to the late David Hockney are opening in Australia later this year, months after the British artist’s death at the age of 88.
The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, home to the largest collection of Hockney’s work in Australia, will stage David Hockney: Portraits in Print from September to February. The exhibition will span more than 60 works made over 30 years and offers “an intimate view of his personal life, creative practice and deep engagement with portraiture”, the NGA said.
And from October to January, Carriageworks in Sydney is staging David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away), an immersive exhibition created by Lightroom London with Hockney himself, who recorded narration that guides visitors through his processes and philosophy.
Bigger & Closer has been staged in London, Manchester, Shanghai and Seoul and visited by 650,000 people so far.
“David is there as your favourite uncle who takes you to an art gallery and says something insightful to you over your shoulder, points something out to you in a painting you would never have caught on your own,” said Richard Slaney, the CEO of Lightroom and producer of Bigger & Closer.
Slaney wrote to Hockney to pitch the show in 2019 and continued to work with him on projects until a couple of weeks before his death in June.
Hockney spent months working on the show, dedicated to the point that “we’d have to politely ask him to leave sometimes”, said Slaney. “He treated this show like an artwork in its own right, which is a real honour. He would stand there describing what had happened with particular paintings and we said, this is what we want to hear. So we went through thousands of hours of archive interviews and had him record new lines.
“I’m sure people were moved by the show before he passed anyway, because hearing him explain things is just lovely. But even more so now. We’re really honoured that his studio and his family are really supportive of the show continuing out there as a legacy piece.”
Hockney’s career spanned six decades. He made his name as a pop artist during the swinging 60s and was perhaps best known for his paintings of swimming pools that helped define the Los Angeles aesthetic, such as A Bigger Splash and Portrait of an Artist (Pool With Two Figures). He also produced portraits using photo-collage, experimented with abstract landscape painting and, in later life, painted works on his iPad and experimented with 3D technology.
Slaney said the NGA show and the Carriageworks show, which are entirely independent of each other, will provide very different experiences for art lovers.
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“When we first opened, some people in the press said, why go to this when you’ve got art galleries full of Hockney paintings available? And the answer is, well, because they complement each other. This is a gateway for people into understanding his work. It’s just that the canvas is bigger and you’re closer to it – hence the title of the show.
“What a life, and what a life well lived. I had the privilege to work with him for a little portion of that but everything that is written about him is absolutely true – he just wanted to work and he loved life, and the fact that he was making work until near the end was amazing.”
Given his love for the aesthetics of Los Angeles, Australia was an obvious home for Hockney, Slaney said: “He was all about sunshine, light and swimming pools. He talked about Los Angeles in those terms, and obviously there are lots of similarities in terms of light, outdoors and colour, for sure.”
David Hockney: Portraits in Print opens at the NGA on 5 September while David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) opens at Carriageworks on 22 October.
