When it comes to contemporary artists, David Hockney is one of the most lauded and adored in the world. The Bradford-born artist has had a career including everything from stage design to printmaking, but he is undoubtedly most famous for his paintings.
And excitingly, the largest-ever display of his work is coming to Paris this spring, in a career-defining exhibition.
From April 9 until September 1, the Fondation Louis Vuitton (a dazzling ‘glass cloud’ designed by architect Frank Gehry) will be filled with Hockney paintings, prints and photos, including some of his most famous works, such as ‘A Bigger Splash’.
The collection will also feature newly created paintings from as recently as the last few weeks, as well as works that have never been on display to the public before. The exhibition will be put together by the former chief curator of the Royal Academy of Arts, Sir Norman Rosenthal, who will also feature in a new portrait as part of the display.
About the exhibition, Rosenthal told the Guardian: ‘David Hockney is one of the great artists. He is as close to Van Gogh as you can be as a contemporary artist. He’s serious, but also unbelievably accessible, a kind of artist-philosopher. Working with him on this scale, I’ve really discovered him.’
‘Play within a Play’ is among the new works to be displayed, which depicts Hockney contemplating his own art. Earlier pieces include the 1963 painting ‘Renaissance Head’, which was acquired by the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon not long after Hockney graduated from the Royal College of Art.
There’s also an entire floor dedicated to Hockney’s Normandy paintings, which were created on both canvas and on iPads, and hardly any of them have been seen before.
It’s clearly quite a time to be a Hockney fan, and while this exhibition sounds pretty mega, it’s not the only one opening in Paris that we’re hyped about – check out the best exhibitions coming to the French capital in 2025 here.
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