The NGV presents a major solo exhibition of one of the most influential living artists, David Hockney: Current. The exhibition, curated by the NGV in collaboration with David Hockney and his studio, features more than 700 works from the past decade of the artist’s career – some new and many never-before-seen in Australia – including paintings, digital drawings, photography and video works.
Exhibition highlights include more than 600 extraordinary and sometimes animated iPad digital drawings of still life compositions, self-portraits and large-scale landscapes including scenes of Yosemite National Park. Another highlight is The Four Seasons, Woldgate Woods, a breath-taking and immersive video work showcasing the changing landscape of Hockney’s native Yorkshire, each season comprised of nine high-definition screens. A dedicated 35-metre long gallery lined with more than 80 recently painted acrylic portrait paintings of the artist’s family, friends and notable subjects including artists John Baldessari and Barry Humphries is also a major highlight.
Arguably Britain’s greatest living painter, David Hockney, 78, works prolifically, experimenting and mastering new technologies, creating works on iPhone, iPad and in video. The exhibition includes Bigger Trees Near Warter, Hockney’s largest painting comprised of fifty oil on canvas panels, and the centrepiece of Hockney’s hugely popular exhibition Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy, London which he subsequently gifted to the Tate. Transforming the gallery, the three remaining walls of this space display 1:1 digital versions of the same work, the first time that this major work has been exhibited in Australia.
Hockney’s continued investigation into multi-point perspective is represented by The Jugglers, an 18-screen, twenty-two minute video that depicts the artist in a room of performers, injecting Hockney’s signature playfulness into the exhibition. Again utilising technology to reveal a study in perspective, Hockney’s Seven Yorkshire Landscapes is a 12 minute multi-viewpoint video displayed on 18 tiled, 55-inch monitors which monumentally showcases the extraordinary landscape.
Organised by the National Gallery of Victoria in collaboration with Gregory Evans of David Hockney Inc.
Major Supporters: The Bonnici Family, Joan Clemenger AO and Peter Clemenger AO, and Krystyna Campbell-Pretty and the Campbell-Pretty Family.
David Hockney: Current
11 November 2016 – 13 March 2017
NGV International, Melbourne
www.ngv.vic.gov.au
