“Do remember: They can’t cancel spring.” So The Guardian quotes David Hockney saying about his latest iPad drawings of daffodils and fruit trees, made in Normandy, France. Meanwhile, publishing house Taschen is offering “My Window,” Hockney’s rapturous artist book of 120 iPhone and iPad drawings that he made gazing out of a window of his Yorkshire home throughout the seasons — although it is spring that commands our attention here in all its vibrant, Vincent van Gogh-inspired, fruit-blossom, lilac-scented, reawakening, wistful, time-to-be-hopeful glory.
The book and select, limited edition prints are available for a pretty steep price. We’re talking upward of five figures. But then, Hockney is highly collectible.
We had the pleasure of seeing him in person once at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1988 for a retrospective of his work organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He had flown in from Los Angeles, where he lived then, and somehow lost his hearing aids along the way so the press conference was a bit of a nonstarter, with the artist’s eyes darting everywhere as he tried to keep up with the remarks. But the work, which was very different then, showed his great gift as a colorist – bold abstracts of Mulholland Drive, Polaroid collages and homoerotic pool paintings.
These fresh new landscapes – redolent, too, of Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonard and coming some three decades later – are even more fabulous and remind us that it ain’t over till it’s over.
– Georgette Gouveia
