Fondation Louis Vuitton Mounts David Hockney’s Largest Exhibition Ever

“Remember, they can’t cancel spring,” artist David Hockney told the world in March 2020. At the beginning of the spring five years later, this view was in full swing in the whole of the artist’s just opened investigation at Louis Vuitton in Paris (until August 31). The current exhibition spans all four floors of the museum and is the largest ever dedicated to British artists, and his work was investigated eight years ago in the heart of Paris. The 11-room presentation consists of over 400 objects, from paintings and drawings to digital works (made via computers and iPads), and even immersive video installations. Titled “David Hockney 25,” the show highlights the last 25 years of his career, but also includes work throughout the decade.

Once in, you immediately notice its colorful display, filled with bright greens, dark blues and blazing yellows that usually make the institution usually perfect for white walls. Suzanne Pagé, the artistic director of Louis Vuitton, attributed this sensitivity to Hockney himself. “He was the real curator of the exhibition. He shot all the shots,” she said, adding that the artist worked closely with his partner and studio manager Jean Peggill Gonsalves de Lima and assistant Jonathan Wilkinson.

The exhibition begins at a lower level, starting with symbolic works from the 1950s to the 1970s, including My father’s portrait (1955), the first painting ever sold by Hockney, who recently bought back. “When he visited the exhibition, you could say that he was not looking at the painting itself, but in his beloved father.” Artnews Before the performance opens.

The adjacent gallery was home in 1967 Bigger splashHockney’s iconic portrayal of California swimming pool after an invisible character is in trouble, his 1972 Portrait of the artist (swimming pool with two numbers)the company sold to top collector Pierre Chen for $90.3 million in 2018. Christopher Itherwood and Don Bachary (1968) and The Clarks and the Percys (1970-71). (Mrs. Clark or Mrs. Celia Birtwell are regular models of Hockney, appearing in a few paintings throughout the exhibition.)

These double portraits hint at something upstairs, and the benefit of Louis Vuitton is about 60 such pieces. Hockney is known only for painting the people he knows: his assistant, chef, his gardener, siblings and his friends, such as Frank Gehry, the architect of the building. Hockney’s portrait method expresses his sense of painting about his model, as he sees in his portrayal of Gonçalves DeLima, his head holding his hand and his elbow kneeling on his knees, a posture he borrowed from Van Gogh in 1882 The sad old man (in the gate of eternity).

Hockney has always embraced the influence of his ex, like Van Gogh Report (About 1440–45), the focus is on the reverse view, which makes him update his previous work. Mount Garrobi (For example, 2017) shows the twists and turns and angles of the Yorkshire landscape he has portrayed since the 1990s. When he was trapped in Normandy during lockdown, he turned to the method of painting en plein air Favored by impressionists like Monet. Hockney uses the iPad to create luminous ingredients in juxtaposed flat tones, but with a pop accent to capture the effects of light and climax changes.

This part of the exhibition ends some works that have never been seen before, and Hockney himself is “more spiritual” than his previous works. Mysterious After Blake: Less than people think (2024), for example, echoes the illustrations of the romantic poet William Blake for Dante Holy Comedyalthough Hockney’s version is a more pleasant vision of the heaven, hell and the earth’s levels, it is filled with spots of sky. The most recent one is Playing football in the drama, I play with cigarettes (2024–25), wearing a painter in a patterned Ocher suit, when he smokes and draws the same scene unfolding before the audience’s eyes. On his plaid jacket, the circular sticker reads “End the class as soon as possible.” This sarcastic self-portrait reminds him of an interview in 2004 BBC News Night: “I hate my boss…I smoke for my mental health.”

The current exhibition highlights how Hockney has gone through his vibrant palette and interest in new technologies, such as sketching with iPad. His biggest work in the performance, Larger trees near the warehouse or //ou peinture sur le le Motif pour le nouvel age (2007), consisting of 50 panels that are digitally subdivided by Gonçalves DeLima to create this 15-foot x 40-foot mammoth. Nearby is his nighttime view of Normandy, which was exhibited last year at Des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. So, fluid is Hockney’s technique in traditional and digital painting, and it’s hard to tell acrylic that the iPad can be separated.

Foodation’s top gallery is often called the “Cathedral” because of its high ceilings, which has been transformed into a site-specific installation that was produced in collaboration with 59 works that trap visitors in Hockney’s work on the stage. Igor Stravinsky’s set design and some outfits The progress of the rake (1975), Mozart Magic flute (1978) and Richard Wagner Tristan und Isolde (1987). Visitors can sit on huge cushions, relax and enjoy the predictions of the walls and the corresponding soundtrack.