LONDON.- Five of the world’s leading galleries have come together to present "20 Flowers and Some Bigger Pictures", an unprecedented international exhibition by David Hockney. The jointly presented global exhibition began this fall and winter across five cities: Annely Juda Fine Art in London; Galerie Lelong & Co. in Paris; GRAY in Chicago; L.A. Louver in Los Angeles; and Pace in New York.

"20 Flowers and Some Bigger Pictures" presents works created by Hockney in 2021, expanding on a series of iPad paintings in 2020 while quarantining at his studio and residence in Normandy, France. Inspired by his daily observations, Hockney devoted himself to the iPad, a medium of unique immediacy that allowed him to be prolific in his depictions of his home, the changing seasons, and surrounding countryside.

Of his iPad paintings, each gallery is presenting a distinct series of editioned and signed inkjet prints including five landscapes, twenty floral still lifes, and a composite of three iPad paintings depicting a gladioli. These two series reveal the presence of Hockney’s hand as well as his deliberate technique for drafting larger-than-life compositions on the iPad. While Hockney’s flowers capture the fleeting stillness of his subjects, his immersive landscapes establish the vastness of his rural surroundings. Whether bound to a single moment in time or created from multiple planes of vision, Hockney’s distinctive sense of time and space draws from art historical examples ranging from the Bayeux Tapestry and seventeenth-century Chinese scrolls to the still lifes of Henri Matisse.

A cornerstone of the series, Hockney’s landscapes call upon his observations of the changing of seasons. In each of his gridded picture planes, Hockney reimagines the Normandy countryside with bright colors, abstracted forms, and impossible angles of otherwise traditional outdoor scenes. Placing his focus on themes of renewal and rebirth, the resulting body of work reflects the pastoral nostalgia and beauty of the natural world.

“I think it’s what we need today. New looking fresh pictures of a very beautiful world.”-– David Hockney

First reproduced by the German newspaper, Die Welt, and later debuted at Musée Matisse in Nice, Hockney’s series of twenty flower iPad paintings captures various arrangements of blooms set against a backdrop of gingham tablecloths and burgundy walls. “I was just sitting at the table in our house, and I caught sight of some flowers in a vase on the table,” Hockney explains. “A few days later I started another from the same position with the same ceramic vase. This took longer to do. I then realized if I put the flowers in a glass vase the sun would catch the water, and painting glass would be a more interesting thing to do. So then I was off.” Though attributes vary in each work, such as the species of flower, type of vase, and the color of the tablecloth, consistent elements across this series allow viewers to admire Hockney’s technique and dedication to his subject. Capturing a spectrum of floral compositions with contrasting tones and textures, Hockney displays his propensity for balancing the central artistic elements of line, color, and perspective.

At the center of the exhibition, Hockney debuts his latest large-scale photographic drawing, 25th June 2022, Looking at the Flowers (Framed). Within the composition, Hockney is depicted twice – once on the right side of the scene, and once on the left –sitting in an armchair and looking upon his twenty flower still lifes displayed salon-style on a navy-blue wall. “This is photographic but is in no way an ordinary photograph,” Hockney describes. “I had been doing what I called photographic drawings, giving a much more 3D effect. This is because you have to look at these through time (unlike an ordinary photograph which you see all at once).” From a series of individual photographs, Hockney constructs a seamless panorama that defies the natural parameters of time and space. The photographic drawing pulls viewers into a self- referential world that is at once familiar and entirely new. “Most people thought the photograph was the ultimate depiction of reality, didn’t they? People thought, This is it, this is the end of it. Which it’s not. And I’m very certain it’s not, but not many people think the way I do.”




PUBLICATION
To accompany the exhibition, GRAY, Galerie Lelong & Co., Pace, Annely Juda Fine Art, and L.A. Louver announced the release of "David Hockney: 20 Flowers and Some Bigger Pictures" (English and French, 76 pages, 24 x 31 cm). The book features an essay by the artist and color illustrations of the works on view in the exhibition.

DAVID HOCKNEY
David Hockney (British, b. 1937) has produced some of the most vividly recognizable and influential works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Hockney gained notoriety in his mid- twenties after receiving the Gold Medal from London’s Royal College of Art, and he quickly became associated with the British Pop Art movement. In the late 1960s Hockney relocated to California and established himself as a prolific figurative and landscape artist. He is perhaps best recognized for the works he produced there: brightly colored, large-scale evocative images of the Southern California lifestyle as well as domestic, intimate portraits of his friends, family, and lovers. Hockney’s works are notable for their quietness of subject, flatness of space, and subtle reduction of form. Throughout his career he has worked in a wide variety of media, including painting, drawing, collage, photography, and printmaking, often utilizing contemporary technologies that have included fax machines, laser photocopiers, tablet devices, and other digital instruments.

David Hockney’s work can be found in many distinguished public collections around the world, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Art Institute of Chicago; National Portrait Gallery, London; Tate Gallery, London; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. He lives and works in Normandy, France, and Los Angeles.

Annely Juda Fine Art
Annely Juda (1914 – 2006) established the Molton Gallery (1960 – 1963) and then the Hamilton Galleries (1963 – 1967) in London before opening Annely Juda Fine Art with her son, David Juda, on 16th June 1968 in a warehouse space on London’s Tottenham Mews. The gallery became known for exhibiting works from Russian Constructivism, the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements alongside contemporary British and international artists. In 1990, the gallery moved to its current location at 23 Dering Street off New Bond Street in London’s Mayfair and remains under the directorship of David Juda. The gallery presents exhibitions of its represented artists along with curated group exhibitions.

Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris
With a history going back to 1945 when it started presenting post-war modernist icons in Paris (Joan Miró, Antoni Tápies, Francis Bacon), Galerie Lelong & Co. adopted its current name in 1981, then opened a space in New York in 1985, and developed its international programme of artists from nearly every continent and all generations (including Etel Adnan, Louise Bourgeois, Günther Förg, Ana Mendieta, Jaume Plensa, Barthélémy Toguo). David Hockney’s first exhibition at the gallery opened in 2001, followed by five more over the years. After settling in France, the artist presented his new paintings and editions in the 2020 show Ma Normandie in both of the gallery’s spaces in Paris.

GRAY
GRAY is a globally recognized team of art professionals devoted to fostering the development of historically important artists’ careers and to building outstanding art collections. Founded in 1963, GRAY has established its reputation as a resource for Modern, Postwar, and Contemporary art with prominent private and institutional clients worldwide. Known for producing critically acclaimed exhibitions and programming from its galleries in Chicago and New York, GRAY represents a roster of internationally recognized artists such as McArthur Binion, Jim Dine, Torkwase Dyson, Theaster Gates, David Hockney, Rashid Johnson, Alex Katz, Ellen Lanyon, Jaume Plensa, Leon Polk Smith, and Evelyn Statsinger.

L.A. Louver
Founded in Venice, California in 1975, L.A. Louver gallery is committed to contemporary art through a distinguished exhibition program of Los Angeles based and international artists. Over the last 47 years, L.A. Louver has presented an array of contemporary art ranging from the Postwar paintings of Leon Kossoff to the bold tableau and assemblage works of Edward and Nancy Kienholz to important artists working in L.A. today such as Alison Saar and Gajin Fujita. The gallery is proud of its long representation of David Hockney, an association that dates back to 1978.

Pace
Pace is a leading international art gallery representing some of the most influential contemporary artists and estates from the past century, holding decades-long relationships with Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet, Barbara Hepworth, Agnes Martin, Louise Nevelson, and Mark Rothko. Pace enjoys a unique U.S. heritage spanning East and West coasts through its early support of artists central to the Abstract Expressionist and Light and Space movements. Since its founding by Arne Glimcher in 1960, Pace has developed a distinguished legacy as an artist- first gallery that mounts seminal historical and contemporary exhibitions. Under the current leadership of President and CEO Marc Glimcher, Pace continues to support its artists and share their visionary work with audiences worldwide by remaining at the forefront of innovation. Today, Pace has nine locations worldwide, including a European foothold in London and Geneva; two galleries in New York; Los Angeles; Palm Beach; East Hampton; and Hong Kong and Seoul, as well as an office and viewing room in Beijing.

Annely Juda Fine Art, London: November 3 – December 23, 2022
Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris: November 3 – December 22, 2022
GRAY, Chicago: November 4 – December 23, 2022
L.A. Louver, Los Angeles: November 16, 2022 – January 7, 2023
Pace, New York: January 12 – February 25, 2023