David Hockney at Fondation Louis Vuitton: A Life in Technicolor
By Kris Ghesquière
At 87, David Hockney remains a restless innovator. The sweeping retrospective "David Hockney – A Year in Normandie & Works 1954-2024," currently on view at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, is not just a look back—it is a celebration of the artist's enduring curiosity and stylistic evolution. Spanning more than 400 works, the exhibition, curated in close collaboration with Hockney himself, highlights the range of his practice from the 1950s to today, with special attention given to his vibrant digital works created during his time in Normandy.
Hockney’s early career, represented here through drawings, prints, and paintings, reveals the sharp wit and emotional depth that marked his ascent in 1960s London. In the same decade, he moved to Los Angeles, a shift that brought with it a dramatic change in light, color, and subject matter. The clean lines and radiant hues of his Southern California years transformed ordinary scenes into modern icons. Henry Geldzahler (1980) is one of the portraits from this period, capturing the famed curator in a pink, orange, and blue palette that feels intimate yet vibrant.
Printmaking was another major avenue of exploration for Hockney. In 1973, he created Sun (from The Weather Series)—a lithograph and screenprint bursting with golden rays, shutters, and potted plants. It’s a playful yet refined distillation of California’s light.
Hockney’s fascination with the domestic and the everyday also appears in works like Two Peppers (1973)
and Slightly Damaged Chair, Malibu 1 (1973). Both are rendered with great economy but carry emotional weight—quiet homages to the stillness of interiors and the intimacy of observation.
Among the most delicate of Hockney’s early print series is Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C.P. Cavafy. Created in 1966, this series includes the evocative Two Boys Aged 23 or 24—a soft, erotic etching that illustrates the poet’s discreet homoeroticism with tenderness and grace.
The Fondation exhibition gives pride of place to Hockney’s 21st-century output. Digital paintings made on iPads and iPhones, printed large on paper or canvas, showcase his embrace of technology. These works are not gimmicks—they are joyous, painterly explorations of color, rhythm, and light. In iPad Drawing Untitled 468, a potted plant sits quietly in a simplified interior, rendered in luminous greens and blues.
Equally intimate is My Window iPad Drawing No. 535 (28th June 2009)—a floral still life bursting with morning light, drawn from the window of Hockney’s Yorkshire home.
The centerpiece of the show is arguably the monumental A Year in Normandie—a 90-meter-long frieze painted on an iPad and printed on paper. Inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry and Monet’s Rouen, it records the seasonal shifts in Hockney’s garden in Normandy during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Nearby, viewers encounter works from 220 for 2020, a suite of digital paintings created during the same period, reflecting the changing skies and moods of spring.
In contrast to the grand digital friezes, quieter moments are also celebrated. Pool Made with Paper and Blue Ink for Book 2 (1980) captures, with minimal lines and color, the calm geometry of pool water—one of Hockney’s most enduring subjects.
Taken as a whole, the Fondation Louis Vuitton exhibition is more than a retrospective; it is a vivid argument that Hockney’s artistic vitality has only grown with age. The show’s final room features works made just months ago, including portraits and meditative landscapes, proving that the artist’s eye—sharp, curious, generous—remains undimmed.
David Hockney – A Year in Normandie & Works 1954–2024
Dates: From 09.04.2025 to 31.08.2025
Venue: Fondation Louis Vuitton, 8 Avenue du Mahatma Gandhi, Bois de Boulogne, 75116 Paris
More info: https://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/en/events/david-hockney-25
By Kris Ghesquière
At 87, David Hockney remains a restless innovator. The sweeping retrospective "David Hockney – A Year in Normandie & Works 1954-2024," currently on view at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, is not just a look back—it is a celebration of the artist's enduring curiosity and stylistic evolution. Spanning more than 400 works, the exhibition, curated in close collaboration with Hockney himself, highlights the range of his practice from the 1950s to today, with special attention given to his vibrant digital works created during his time in Normandy.
Hockney’s early career, represented here through drawings, prints, and paintings, reveals the sharp wit and emotional depth that marked his ascent in 1960s London. In the same decade, he moved to Los Angeles, a shift that brought with it a dramatic change in light, color, and subject matter. The clean lines and radiant hues of his Southern California years transformed ordinary scenes into modern icons. Henry Geldzahler (1980) is one of the portraits from this period, capturing the famed curator in a pink, orange, and blue palette that feels intimate yet vibrant.
Printmaking was another major avenue of exploration for Hockney. In 1973, he created Sun (from The Weather Series)—a lithograph and screenprint bursting with golden rays, shutters, and potted plants. It’s a playful yet refined distillation of California’s light.
Hockney’s fascination with the domestic and the everyday also appears in works like Two Peppers (1973)
and Slightly Damaged Chair, Malibu 1 (1973). Both are rendered with great economy but carry emotional weight—quiet homages to the stillness of interiors and the intimacy of observation.
Among the most delicate of Hockney’s early print series is Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C.P. Cavafy. Created in 1966, this series includes the evocative Two Boys Aged 23 or 24—a soft, erotic etching that illustrates the poet’s discreet homoeroticism with tenderness and grace.
The Fondation exhibition gives pride of place to Hockney’s 21st-century output. Digital paintings made on iPads and iPhones, printed large on paper or canvas, showcase his embrace of technology. These works are not gimmicks—they are joyous, painterly explorations of color, rhythm, and light. In iPad Drawing Untitled 468, a potted plant sits quietly in a simplified interior, rendered in luminous greens and blues.
Equally intimate is My Window iPad Drawing No. 535 (28th June 2009)—a floral still life bursting with morning light, drawn from the window of Hockney’s Yorkshire home.
The centerpiece of the show is arguably the monumental A Year in Normandie—a 90-meter-long frieze painted on an iPad and printed on paper. Inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry and Monet’s Rouen, it records the seasonal shifts in Hockney’s garden in Normandy during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Nearby, viewers encounter works from 220 for 2020, a suite of digital paintings created during the same period, reflecting the changing skies and moods of spring.
In contrast to the grand digital friezes, quieter moments are also celebrated. Pool Made with Paper and Blue Ink for Book 2 (1980) captures, with minimal lines and color, the calm geometry of pool water—one of Hockney’s most enduring subjects.
Taken as a whole, the Fondation Louis Vuitton exhibition is more than a retrospective; it is a vivid argument that Hockney’s artistic vitality has only grown with age. The show’s final room features works made just months ago, including portraits and meditative landscapes, proving that the artist’s eye—sharp, curious, generous—remains undimmed.
David Hockney – A Year in Normandie & Works 1954–2024
Dates: From 09.04.2025 to 31.08.2025
Venue: Fondation Louis Vuitton, 8 Avenue du Mahatma Gandhi, Bois de Boulogne, 75116 Paris
More info: https://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/en/events/david-hockney-25
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