After being on display in Salt's Mill's roof space for most of the past two years, the exhibition of David Hockney's huge artwork 'A Year in Normandie' closes today. I'm not sure whether it will be dismantled or 'mothballed' for opening again at some future date. I went along to bid farewell. It is really rather special.
Made up of prints from 220 iPad pieces Hockney created in 2020, while he was spending the pandemic lockdown in Normandy, it records the changing seasons around his French garden. Influenced by Chinese scrolls and the Bayeux Tapestry, Hockney's intent is that the viewer will walk past it and experience in one picture a whole year in Normandy. It's quite intriguing. I watched a short video about its creation. Not that I could hear it (no subtitles for the deaf, tch tch) but it showed Hockney out in his garden making sketches and ink drawings, then experimenting on his iPad.
This section reminded me of a song that I was once fond of, by Harry Chapin, called 'Flowers are Red', about a child whose teachers tell him off for painting things the 'wrong' colours. Hockney thinks tree trunks are purple... Who am I to argue?
I wonder what delights will come to Salts Mill next? They have some great exhibitions and, if it's Hockney you want to see, there is a large permanent collection of his work here. (He grew up in Bradford, went to art college here and was a friend of Jonathan Silver, who rescued the Mill from dereliction and developed it into the world class attraction that it now is.)
You are so fortunate to have Hockneys available through his friend, and Salts Mill's benefactor.
ReplyDeleteWonderful.
ReplyDeleteLovely drawings!
ReplyDeleteGosh this is delightful, I wish I had seen it in person but I live too far away!! I really need to learn more about David Hockney and his art.
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