David Hockney: At Tate Britain

David Hockney (born 1937) is one of the most popular and widely recognised artists of our time. After first coming to public attention in 1961, while still a student at the Royal College of Art, he went on to produce some of the best-known paintings of the 1960s.

This exhibition, a survey of almost sixty years of Hockney’s art, offers the first opportunity to see those classic early paintings alongside subsequent work in a variety of media. It spans from paintings made as a student in London through 1960s Los Angeles, the reorientation of his practice in painting and photography in the 1980s, a decade of Yorkshire landscapes, and on to the newest works made since his return to California in 2013.

From beginning to end, running through all the different types and periods of work is Hockney’s principal obsession with the challenge of representation: how do we see the world, and how can that world of time and space be captured in two dimensions? The exhibition is largely arranged chronologically but the first room presents works from different periods which exemplify the ways in which Hockney has played with the conventions of picture-making.

This exhibition gathers together an extensive selection of David Hockney’s most famous works celebrating his achievements in painting, drawing, print, photography and video across six decades.

As he approaches his 80th birthday, Hockney continues to change his style and ways of working, embracing new technologies as he goes. From his portraits and images of Los Angeles swimming pools, through to his drawings and photography, Yorkshire landscapes and most recent paintings – some of which have never been seen before in public – this exhibition shows how the roots of each new direction lay in the work that came before. A once-in-a-lifetime chance to see these unforgettable works together.

DAVID HOCKNEY

9 FEBRUARY – 29 MAY 2017