Hockney

David Hockney's joyful, 90m long frieze depicting 'A Year in Normandie' remains on display in the roof space at Salts Mill until October 29th this year. I've walked around it several times now and always notice some new detail. It really is delightful. There has been a series of programmes on Sky Arts recently, compilations of interviews with David Hockney and Melvyn Bragg. I found them very interesting; fascinating to hear Hockney's thoughts about art and the process of making art, and what he is experimenting with (even now in his 80s). The Normandie frieze consists of 220 iPad paintings he made of his current home, during the Covid lockdown, all blended into one long painting. He says he was inspired by both Chinese scrolls and the Bayeux Tapestry. Walking round the huge art work enables the viewer to experience the story of the whole year in one artwork. This is typical of the exploring that Hockney has done for many years around capturing the passage of time, and the effect of differing viewpoints, in one artwork. He tried this with his 'joiner photographs', the most famous of which is possibly his 'Pearblossom Highway' (1986). 

In the roof space there is also this lovely 'Water Lilies in the Pond with Pots of Flowers'. (Not given to short titles, is he?) This is 'six iPad paintings, comprising a single work printed on two sheets of paper' and was made between 8 and 22 June 2021. 

Elsewhere in Salts Mill, Hockney's earlier iPad paintings 'The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate' are displayed. These were painted in Yorkshire in 2011, when he lived for a few years in Bridlington. They were later displayed in a blockbuster exhibition at the Royal Academy in London. I went to see them then and could hardly get close for the crowds. It's a huge privilege - and much nicer - to sit and reflect on them in Salts Mill's quiet space. 

In the same gallery, this video installation plays in a loop. It was filmed with nine separate cameras all recording on a rig on a Land Rover as it drove along the wintery lanes in North Yorkshire. Again, it explores both time and different viewpoints in one artwork. It is both beautiful and mesmerising to watch. It is one part of four similar video installations that make up 'The Four Seasons, Woldgate Woods'. (See also HERE for a short clip of the video sequences.)