Art is divine

Located in a former priory, the Granet Museum, a veritable institution of the city of Aix en Provence, displays a magnificent retrospective devoted to David Hockney in partnership with the Tate Gallery.

The great British artist, who has lived in Normandy since 2019, presents here the progression of his work from the end of the 1950s to his most recent creations. His works are showcased in a space of more than 700 meters square which houses the vast London collection and some loans from private collections, for a total of 103 works.

These six decades testify to his immense talent, from his first drawings imbued with the teachings of the great masters of the 19th and 20th centuries to his infinite admiration for Cézanne and Van Gogh, from his passion for Norman landscapes in acid colors to the representation of swimming pools following his stay on the west coast of the United States.

Born in Bradford in the United Kingdom in 1937, he studied at the Bradford School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. He was interested in different artistic techniques, acrylic painting, engraving, drawing, photography, digital works and collages.

The exhibition follows a chronological order and illustrates the artist's various sources of inspiration as well as his obsession with representations of perspective.

A very prolific artist, David Hockney was first passionate about graffiti and encrypted messages. He approached the theme of his homosexuality, love and sex with freshness and modernity. Water holds an important place in his work, shower, swimming pool depict moments of sweet intimacy with great delicacy. The private sphere of his relatives, friends and family holds an important place in his creation.

His landscapes come from his stays in a small village on the North Sea from the 2000s.

The Perspective Lesson, lithographies papier, 76 x 56,3 cm,

 Tate presented by the artist 1993,

 © David Hockney, Tyler Graphics Ltd,  

Photo Credit National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.