Please get a head start! Prior to entry, read the exhibition texts and help us avoid congestion in the galleries. Hockney – Van Gogh The Joy of Nature
The British painter David Hockney is one of the best- known artists in the world. Over the course of his 60-year career, he has created an impressive range of work, from his swimming-pool paintings in the 1960s to portraits and still lifes. This exhibition focuses on the landscapes that Hockney created in Yorkshire, in the north of England, between 2004 and 2013. They demonstrate Hockney’s constant exploration of different techniques—oil paintings, watercolors, charcoal and iPad drawings, sketchbooks, and films. For the first time in the United States, these works are on display together with a number of landscapes by Vincent van Gogh.
Hockney has always been an admirer of Van Gogh’s work, and although separate in time and space, the two artists have much in common. Both show a deep connection with nature in their work. They view the landscape with fresh eyes and capture what they see through brilliant color. Their works express a desire to depict the natural world in all of its beauty and variety.
David Hockney (born 1937) Born in the industrial town Bradford, West Yorkshire, in the north of England, in 1937, David Hockney came to public attention while still a student at the Royal College of Art, London, which he attended from 1959 to 1962. Drawn to the light of California, he settled in Los Angeles in 1964. In the late 1960s and 1970s, the artist moved back and forth between Los Angeles, London, and Paris. During the 1970s and 1980s, he produced many of his celebrated theater designs, principally for the opera, while continuing to make portraits and landscapes in different media. Hockney made frequent short visits to Yorkshire in the 1990s to visit his mother, who died in 1999. There, he rediscovered the landscapes of his youth, which have been a principal theme in his work from about 2004 to the present.
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) The son of a Protestant pastor, Vincent van Gogh was born in Zundert, in the Netherlands, in 1853. After working for an art dealer in the Netherlands, London, and Paris, he turned to religion and briefly became a Protestant missionary in southern Belgium. In 1880 he decided to become an artist and was largely self-taught. From then on, he devoted himself fervently to his art. After two years in Paris, from 1886 to 1888, where he came into contact with the artistic avant-garde, he moved to Arles in the South of France in search of light and color. There, he suffered his first psychotic episode and in 1889 admitted himself to an asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. He spent the last few months of his life in northern France, where he died from a self-inflicted gunshot in 1890. During his short 10-year career, he produced an astonishing body of paintings and drawings.
µ˙ Introduction The Intimate Landscape When Hockney returned to Yorkshire in 2004, he was inspired by the light, which is completely different from the light in California. It changes constantly so that the landscape always looks different. “To see another light is a very good thing I think,” he remarked, explaining that he wanted, “to get the excitement of the landscape back. I went painting outdoors, just to find a new kind of language.” This experience encouraged him to look closely and to record the changes of light and color on the canvas, which make even the most ordinary places in nature interesting to him. In this respect, he is like Van Gogh, who also saw the beauty of the ordinary landscape: “I’ve done two drawings of that flat landscape in which there was nothing but the infinite, eternity.”
Vincent van Gogh David Hockney David Hockney David Hockney Dutch, 1853–1890 English, born 1937 English, born 1937 English, born 1937 Field with Irises near Kilham to Langtoft II, Woldgate Vista, Wheat Field off Arles, May 1888 July 27, 2005 27 July 2005 Woldgate, 2006 Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Van Gogh Museum, Collection of the artist Collection of the artist Collection of the artist Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh This work by Hockney has The Wolds is a wide area Foundation) a number of similarities of unspoiled agricultural to Van Gogh’s Field land that stretches Van Gogh described this with Irises near Arles (on between the city of York painting to his brother display in this room). Both and the seaside town Theo: “A meadow full of artists love the contrast of of Bridlington where very yellow buttercups, blue and yellow to capture Hockney had a house and a ditch with iris plants vivid light—on a brilliant studio. He has called it with green leaves, with May day in Van Gogh’s “the least changed bit of purple flowers, the town painting, and in sweltering England that I know.” He in the background, some heat in Hockney’s high- first came to know the grey willow trees—a summer harvest scene. area when he was about strip of blue sky. . . . A The thick strokes that 15 and spent the summers little town surrounded Hockney has used to paint collecting corn on a local by countryside entirely the movement of the farm. “Around Bridlington, covered in yellow and waving grass also appear I was painting the land, purple flowers.” It is an to have been inspired by land that I myself had example of the artist’s Van Gogh. This is one of worked,” he has said. “I had intense looking: he the things that Hockney dwelt in those fields, so absorbs every blade of really admires about Van that out there, seeing, for grass, yet the composition Gogh’s work: “His pictures me, necessarily became is beautifully organized as are full of movement.” steeped in memory.” a whole. The band of irises holds the foreground while the field stretches away to the buildings of Arles on the horizon.
µ˙ The Intimate Landscape David Hockney Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh English, born 1937 Dutch, 1853–1890 Dutch, 1853–1890 Midsummer: East Yorkshire, 2004 View of Arles, May 1888 The Rocks, 1888 36 watercolors on paper Reed pen, ink, and wash Oil on canvas Collection The David Hockney Foundation over graphite on paper The Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of Mrs. Murray S. Houston This series of watercolors, which Hockney considers Danforth, 42.212A John A. and Audrey Jones a single work, was the first result of his renewed Lent by Museum of Art, Beck Collection, gift of acquaintance with the Yorkshire landscape. In different Rhode Island School of Audrey Jones Beck, 74.139 views of this peaceful, agricultural scenery, he recorded Design, Providence everything that caught his eye, from harvest scenes to Van Gogh made this empty roads, experimenting with a wide range of dots, This drawing is a painting of craggy rocks stripes, and spots of color. Hockney’s admiration for preparatory study for and a tree at Montmajour, the way in which Van Gogh varied his use of pencil and the painting Field with a few miles north of the brush marks was an important factor in encouraging Irises near Arles (1888), city of Arles where he him to find his own new methods. displayed nearby. Van was living. Painting out of Gogh drew it using a doors, he often struggled pen cut from a reed that with the fierce wind, was probably growing in the mistral, that blows the meadow. With this through southern France. simple handmade tool he Particularly striking in produced a remarkably this painting is the speed varied and expressive and energy with which range of dots and strokes, Van Gogh laid down his the vigorous mark- unmixed colors. He thus David Hockney making that Hockney so achieves in painting the David Hockney English, born 1937 admires in his work. In the same graphic quality as English, born 1937 Early July Tunnel, 2006 foreground, Van Gogh his drawings made with Woldgate, 24 November Oil on 2 canvases used an ink-laden pen to pens cut from reeds. 2005 Collection of the artist emphasize the dark petals Hockney has often spoken of the irises. of his admiration for Van Oil on canvas Gogh’s exceptional gift for Collection of the artist This farm track near the village of Kilham in capturing the variegated textures of nature. Hockney returned to easel East Yorkshire is one of painting in March 2005, Hockney’s favorite places. following several years of He calls it “the tunnel” because of the way it is painting East Yorkshire David Hockney solely in watercolor. enclosed by trees. This is especially true in summer, English, born 1937 Invigorated by the far Sledmere to Malton, greater possibilities of as in this view in which the 3 August 2005 oil painting, he set up his richly painted trees erupt Oil on canvas easel outdoors and sought with lush green foliage, a direct representation of creating walls along the Collection of the artist the scene before him. In sides of the track. As with this view, he captures vivid the other favored places autumn colors on a that he painted again country lane. and again, Hockney is fascinated by capturing the seasonal changes of color µ˙ and light. The Intimate Landscape Trees Trees had a special resonance for Van Gogh, and in numerous letters he expressed his belief in their spiritual and anthropomorphic qualities. According to Hockney, “Like people, trees are all individuals. They don’t follow the rules of perspective, the branches bend all over the place—they have a life of their own.” For both artists, trees represent a life force in nature.
In 2008 Hockney identified a tree in Woldgate, East Yorkshire, that interested him as a potential motif; it was dead yet remained erect among the autumnal growth. On returning some time later, he found that the tree had been cut down, leaving a long stump, but he saw nobility in its reduced, sculptural form that made it a compelling subject. Hockney executed the resulting paintings in his studio from a number of detailed charcoal drawings that he had made on-site, two of which are shown here.
Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh David Hockney David Hockney Dutch, 1853–1890 Dutch, 1853–1890 English, born 1937 English, born 1937 Pine Trees at Sunset, 1889 A Trunk of a Tree, Felled Totem I, 2009 More Felled Trees on Oil on canvas April–May 1888 Oil on canvas Woldgate, 2008 Kröller-Müller Museum, Pen and sepia ink on Collection of the artist Oil on 2 canvases Otterlo, the Netherlands buff paper Collection of the artist Virginia Museum of Fine Art By choosing the title Van Gogh made this Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Totem, Hockney seems to In this beautifully painting in December Paul Mellon emphasize the ancient and constructed composition 1889 as a patient at the symbolic associations of of varied textures and Saint-Paul-de-Mausole Van Gogh was passionate trees. The great fallen tree interlocking shapes, psychiatric asylum in Saint- about trees. From his dramatically dominates Hockney employs an Rémy. In a letter, he referred earliest years as an artist, the foreground. Somber unusual, unnaturalistic to “the superb effects he was drawn to the grays, deep purple tones, palette. The violet tree of pale citron skies, and avenues of pollard willows and cold greens create a stump and long yellow desolate pines [that] cast in his native Holland, mood of melancholy and logs stretching across their silhouettes into relief.” and some of his greatest show that Hockney’s the deep purple ground Van Gogh felt the life force mature paintings are of imagination is given free heighten the emotional in trees, as expressed in this the blossoming orchards rein when he works from tenor of the painting. painting in the rhythmic of Arles or the olive groves memory in the studio movement of the branches and cypresses around rather than directly from arching across the yellow, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. observation. late-afternoon sky where In this pen and ink drawing, the setting sun hangs like a Van Gogh endows a single globe. Yet the ravaged and tree with majesty, and gives broken branches seem to it a compelling presence symbolize the transience that strikes a chord with of life, as do the truncated Hockney’s two drawings trees in Hockney’s paintings of a single tree trunk, on on view in this room. view nearby.
µ˙ Trees David Hockney David Hockney English, born 1937 English, born 1937 Untitled I, 2009 Still There, 2008 Charcoal on paper Charcoal on paper Collection of the artist Collection of the artist
Like Still There (displayed In this beautifully nearby), the focus of observed drawing, this charcoal drawing is a Hockney invests a lone solitary tree stump in tree stump in a woodland a woodland setting, its clearing with great poignant, truncated form presence. He varies the evoking perhaps the pressure of the charcoal transitory nature of life. to suggest the play of light over a variety of textures that range from the stubbled ground to the paler forms of more distant trees.
µ˙ Trees Nature Close Up The drawings that Hockney made of the Yorkshire landscape are a study in how to look closely. In the sketchbooks on display here, he focuses in the first instance on small fragments of nature, such as a blade of grass or a leaf, because “when you’re drawing one blade of grass you’re looking and then you see more.” Van Gogh wrote something similar in one of his letters: “This blade of grass leads [a man] to draw all the plants—then the seasons, the broad features of landscapes.” In sets of five drawings, he records how spring gradually takes hold of the landscape. The black of the charcoal challenges him to capture the idea of color, shadow, and light solely in dots and stripes. Van Gogh’s drawings were clearly a source of inspiration: “I think Van Gogh was one of the great, great draughtsmen. He saw space very clearly.”
Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh Dutch, 1853–1890 Dutch, 1853–1890 Dutch, 1853–1890 Tree Trunks in the Grass, Undergrowth, July 1887 Garden with Weeping April 1890 Oil on canvas Tree, Arles, 1888 Oil on canvas Van Gogh Museum, Ink with traces of graphite Kröller-Müller Museum, Amsterdam on paper Otterlo, the Netherlands (Vincent van Gogh Menil Collection, Houston Foundation) In this springtime scene, Hockney has often spoken Van Gogh immersed Hockney admires Van of his admiration for the himself in nature, Gogh’s capacity to really “graphic clarity” of Van directing his intense look. “We both really enjoy Gogh’s reed pen drawings. focus on the lower looking at the world,” he has “Everything is put in there,” part of a tree trunk and said. This scene of trees and he has explained, “every the surrounding grass undergrowth is typical of bit of grass, every different sprinkled with wild- a number of landscapes in texture.” This drawing, flowers. The strongly which Van Gogh adopted an one of a group of a public graphic rendering of unconventional viewpoint to garden in Arles that Van the tree trunk contrasts gaze intently at a seemingly Gogh thought of as “the with the variety of lighter unprepossessing subject. poet’s garden,” exemplifies strokes that make up the This close focus allows his these qualities. Hockney grasses and flowers. eye to absorb every nuance is also noted for the clarity Hockney’s painting The of the bark of the trees and of his graphic work. In Arrival of Spring, on view the tangle of leaves and his charcoal drawings in the next gallery, is grasses beneath. Although of the Yorkshire woods, also based on the artist’s working on a larger scale, displayed in this exhibition, vision of tree trunks Hockney often similarly he too translates close rising above a carpet of turns a magnifying lens on observation into brilliantly spring flowers, but on a the leaves and flowers that descriptive mark-making. monumental scale. make up the textures of nature at ground level. µ˙ Nature Close Up David Hockney David Hockney English, born 1937 English, born 1937 The Arrival of Spring in 2013 (twenty thirteen) Bridlington July 14, 2004 Charcoal on 25 sheets of paper Pencil and ink (Sketchbook) Collection The David Hockney Foundation Collection The David Hockney Foundation
In this series of charcoal drawings, Hockney has chosen five different woodland sites, methodically recording each on five different occasions that reveal changes in light and in the seasons.
David Hockney English, born 1937 Yorkshire April 04, 2004 Pencil and ink (Sketchbook) Collection The David Hockney Foundation
µ˙ Nature Close Up Experimenting with the iPad Hockney constantly explores new picture-making techniques and how to use them to renew the language of art. He has been a fan of the iPad since the very beginning, particularly the drawing app Brushes: “I found the Brushes app and started drawing on the iPhone. It gave me a whole new kind of freedom: I could draw everywhere, even in bed.” He always has the device with him, so that he can immediately start drawing if he sees something that appeals to him. The choice of colors, lines, and textures is also endless. These iPad drawings illustrate Hockney’s interest in new ways of making pictures. He believes that Van Gogh also would have found this approach useful for the drawings in his letters: “I suppose today he’d be doing it on an iPad and send them to his brother.”
David Hockney English, born 1937 May Blossom on the Roman Road, 2009 Oil on 8 canvases Collection of the artist
Hockney has painted these flowering hawthorns in bold colors and swirling brushstrokes. The stylistic influence of Van Gogh can clearly be seen in the dots in the field of flowers on the right and in the David Hockney many stripes with which Hockney has painted English, born 1937 the sky. Every year, Hockney waited until “action Selections from The Arrival of Spring in week,” when the blossoms would be at their most Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) beautiful, to quickly capture the flowers before they From top to bottom, left to right: wilted, rising early to paint nature’s exuberance 8 January | 29 January | 18 March | 22 March | in the morning light. Hockney remarked that the 12 April, No. 1 | 12 April, No. 2 | 24 April | hawthorn blossoms appeared overnight, “as if a thick white cream had been poured over everything.” 28 April | 30 April | 6 May | 12 May | 14 May | 17 May | 31 May, No. 2 iPad drawings printed on paper, edition 4 of 25 Collection The David Hockney Foundation
Hockney made these 14 drawings on the iPad and then printed them on paper in a larger format. They record the unfolding of spring from early January to the end of May 2011 on Woldgate, a road in East Yorkshire. In the resulting multi-image installation, the printed element has all the painterly qualities of watercolors or oils. Hockney delights in the immediacy of the iPad, on which he can work rapidly with a stylus to capture the changing light and conditions of a scene. He often emails his iPad drawings to friends as gifts to brighten their day.
µ˙ Experimenting with the iPad The Arrival of Spring The vast painting and the iPad drawings in this room represent the culmination of Hockney’s recording of the arrival of spring on Woldgate, a small road in the East Yorkshire countryside. The magnificent paintingThe Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven), composed of 32 canvases, exemplifies Hockney’s intense and amplified vision of the world. The iPad drawings continue the theme of those presented in the previous gallery but now on a bigger scale, with each work made up on four sheets of paper. Together, these works create a total, immersive experience, reminiscent of Hockney’s theater sets for the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Covent Garden, London, and La Scala, Milan. The viewer is placed at center stage, with the drama of the approaching spring playing out on all sides.
David Hockney David Hockney David Hockney David Hockney English, born 1937 English, born 1937 English, born 1937 English, born 1937 The Arrival of Spring in The Arrival of Spring in The Arrival of Spring in The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire Woldgate, East Yorkshire Woldgate, East Yorkshire Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) - in 2011 (twenty eleven) - in 2011 (twenty eleven) - in 2011 (twenty eleven) - 31 May, No. 1 29 December, No. 1 11 May 2 June iPad drawing printed on 4 iPad drawing printed on 4 iPad drawing printed on 4 iPad drawing printed on 4 sheets of paper sheets of paper sheets of paper sheets of paper Collection The David Collection The David Collection The David Collection The David Hockney Foundation Hockney Foundation Hockney Foundation Hockney Foundation
David Hockney David Hockney English, born 1937 English, born 1937 The Arrival of Spring in The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) - in 2011 (twenty eleven) - 18 December 4 May iPad drawing printed on 4 iPad drawing printed on 4 sheets of paper sheets of paper Collection The David Collection The David Hockney Foundation Hockney Foundation
µ˙ The Arrival of Spring The Four Seasons Hockney’s fascination with the seasons began when he visited London in 2002 in the springtime. He had not consciously experienced the springtime for years, as there was hardly any seasonal cycle in his adopted town of Los Angeles. Inspired by England’s burgeoning nature, Hockney decided to travel to Yorkshire, the region of his birth, and to capture its spring. In the nine years that he remained there, he made many drawings and paintings of the rural surroundings. He painted not only the spring, but all of the seasons and the way they changed the landscape, just as Van Gogh had done in the South of France over 100 years before. Both artists painted luxuriant blossoms and bare autumnal branches, seemingly unable to get enough of these subjects. In the words of Hockney, “You can’t be bored of nature, can you? And Van Gogh knew that.”
Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh David Hockney Dutch, 1853–1890 Dutch, 1853–1890 English, born 1937 Path in the Garden of the Trees, 1887 Under the Trees, Bigger, 2010–11 Asylum, November 1889 Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Van Gogh Museum, Collection of the artist Kröller-Müller Museum, Amsterdam Otterlo, the Netherlands (Vincent van Gogh Working on a grand scale, Hockney painted a magical Foundation) woodland vision in which trees rise from a carpet of Like Hockney, Van Gogh leaves and spring flowers. Like Van Gogh, he conveys was fascinated by the Van Gogh was passionate great immediacy in depicting the details of nature—the change of seasons and their about trees. From his leaves, grasses, and tiny green shoots that sprout from effect on the colors of the earliest years as an artist, the earth in the foreground. These elements, combined landscape. From May 1889 he was drawn to the with the vibrant colors, the purple tree trunks, and the to May 1890, he was a avenues of pollard willows vivid turquoise backdrop, create a dreamlike effect that patient at Saint-Paul-de- in his native Holland, invites viewers into an enchanted domain. Mausole psychiatric asylum and some of his greatest in Saint-Rémy in the South mature paintings are of of France. Between bouts the blossoming orchards of severe depression, of Arles or the olive when he was unable to groves and cypresses work, he produced many around Saint-Rémy-de- paintings in the surrounding Provence. In this pen and countryside and in the ink drawing, Van Gogh garden of the asylum. He endows a single tree with particularly loved autumn, majesty, and gives it a and here he catches the compelling presence season’s rich russet, yellow, that strikes a chord with and orange tones with Hockney’s two drawings startling intensity. Van Gogh of a single tree trunk, on once wrote, “I sometimes view nearby. yearn for a country where it would always be autumn.”
µ˙ The Four Seasons David Hockney David Hockney English, born 1937 English, born 1937 Woldgate Woods, 26, 27 & 30 July 2006, 2006 The Four Seasons, Woldgate Woods Oil on 6 canvases (Spring 2011, Summer 2010, Autumn 2010, Winter 2010), Collection of the artist 2010–11 36 digital videos, 4 minutes, 21 seconds These four large paintings (from a series of nine) Collection of the artist depict Woldgate woods. Each consists of six canvases, and depicts the same intersection of three paths In order to make these videos, Hockney and his team beneath a canopy of trees. Hockney’s use of multiple drove a car with nine mounted cameras along a country canvases allowed him to work on an ever-greater scale road. He directed the filming from the back seat, using a outdoors. The colors in the four works change from the grid of nine monitors to “draw” the scene. After filming, fresh greens of spring to the brilliant greens and dense he combined the various images to create the illusion of foliage of summer, and then to the orange and gold an uninterrupted recording. The illusion works because tones of autumn. The artist’s speed in executing these the different movements of the camera resemble the works gives them immediacy and intensity, and gives way we look at a landscape. The human gaze never viewers the impression of being immersed in the woods. focuses on a single point, but instead wanders, zooms in, and changes direction, just as the cameras do here. Hockney’s skill in “drawing” with the cameras, capturing in fine detail the subjects he has treated in many of his paintings, in optimum light and weather conditions, makes these films ravishing and hypnotic.
µ˙ The Four Seasons A New Perspective Hockney’s fascination with space and perspective is a theme that runs throughout his career. He finds the single perspective, as used in many traditional paintings, to be restrictive, as the depiction can then be seen from only one point. So Hockney came up with a solution, which he refers to as “reversed perspective.” This is the representation of several perspectives in a single painting, which is closer to the way we look at our surroundings from different angles. This “reversed perspective” was a new way for Hockney to explore the theme of the landscape. He has used it in, for example, The Road to York through Sledmere and also in more recent works, such as After Hobbema (Useful Knowledge) 2017. Hockney continues to work on new paintings, photographs, and drawings every day. “I won’t stop till I fall over,” he has said.
David Hockney David Hockney English, born 1937 English, born 1937 Assisted by Jonathan Wilkinson After Hobbema (Useful Knowledge), 2017 In the Studio, December 2017 Acrylic on 6 canvases Photographic drawing printed on 7 sheets of paper Collection of the artist Collection of the artist Hockney has always been fascinated by the Dutch This work is part of a recent series that Hockney describes 17th-century painter Meindert Hobbema’s The Avenue as “photographic drawings.” The painter himself appears at Middelharnis, a painting also admired by Van Gogh. in the center of the composition, surrounded by his later Hockney uses “reversed perspective” in his version. The works, including After Hobbema, on view nearby. For these central part shows the original perspective of Hobbema’s works, Hockney uses 3D photographs of various objects work. The canvases on the left and right depict the and then places them digitally within the photographed landscape as seen from the side. The two floating canvases space. By doing so, he attempts to make the space almost show the sky from below. Hockney considers the “reversed tangible for the viewer: “There was always a void between perspective” to be “useful knowledge,” and has therefore you and the space. You weren’t in the space. Well, here you incorporated these words into the title. are. You go in and around.”
David Hockney English, born 1937 The Road to York through Sledmere, 1997 Oil on canvas Collection of the artist
This painting is one of the first landscapes that Hockney painted in Yorkshire. During this period, he was visiting a friend, the collector Jonathan Silver, who was terminally ill. The daily drive between Hockney’s mother’s house in Bridlington and his friend’s deathbed in Wetherby engendered in him a deep affection for the landscape of his youth. This work draws on the accumulated memories of these habitual journeys. By using his “reversed perspective,” he opens up the landscape, giving a view of the houses and road in the distance, while the vivid colors intensify the experience recalled though memory.
µ˙ A New Perspective