Annely Juda Fine Art is delighted to announce an exhibition of iPad drawings by David Hockney. Completed in 2010 and 2011, this series of prints depicts the dramatic landscape of Yosemite National Park, California and will be on view at the gallery from June 28th – August 19th 2016.
The ‘Yosemite Suite’ continues Hockney’s ongoing engagement with the landscape and conveys the grandeur of this iconic Californian setting. Well-known spots including Bridlaveil Fall, the granite cliffs of ‘El Capitan’ and ‘Half Dome’ and the Ahwahnee Hotel appear in works that retain his distinctive use of line and bold colour. The series consists of twenty-four images at 94 x 71 cm along with five very large prints mounted on Dibond at 235 x 178 cm.
Hockney has, for many years, been responding to new technological possibilities, whether it be the use of polaroid photography, the fax machine, photoshop or – more recently – the iPad. He has embraced the iPad as artistic medium wholeheartedly, likening contemporary artists’ use of technology to the Renaissance Masters’ use of mirrors or the influence of the photograph on the evolution of painting. Using the ‘Brushes’ app, Hockney enjoys the freedom of drawing ‘en plein air’ and the ability to go back to various ‘layers’ of his drawing process.
In a career spanning over 50 years, Hockney has energetically explored the illusion of space and what he calls "the tyranny of one-point perspective”, developing a unique style of realism. At nearly 80 years of age, the iPad offers a new tool in the landscape painting of one of the most celebrated artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Works from the Yosemite Suite were first shown at the artist’s exhibition, ‘A Bigger Picture’ at the Royal Academy, London (2012). They have also been exhibited as part of ‘A Bigger Exhibition’ at the de Young Museum, San Francisco (2014) and will feature in a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia (2016). Hockney has been the subject of countless solo exhibitions worldwide including '82 Portraits and 1 Still Life' at the Royal Academy, London (2016) and a major retrospective at Tate Britain, London, Centre Pompidou, Paris and the Metroplitan Museum of Art, New York (2017-18).
