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Lot Essay
This work derives from a series titled Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) that chronicles the atmospheric changes from winter to summer.
Hockney worked en plein air, in the tradition of a long lineage of landscape artists who desired to capture the immediacy of the outdoors. Just as these artists utilized the innovation of paint in tubes to take their work outside of the studio, Hockney also realized the potential present in the latest technology of his time – the iPad.
Hockney began drawing with software apps with his first iPhone in 2008, and progressed to the iPad in 2010. He remarked, ‘'I do think the iPad is a new art form,” and devoted the same level of seriousness to it as his forays into other mediums such as photography and other forms of printmaking.
In the series, Hockney returned to specific locations in order to repeat the same subject under varying conditions of time and weather. The tree stump present in this work is one such motif Hockney revisits several times. The drawings juxtapose the passage of time with the fixed nature of a place like East Yorkshire, which Hockney has remarked has stayed much the same throughout the years. These repetitive observations are similar to Claude Monet’s meditations on light in his series of haystacks or the façade of the Rouen Cathedral.
A group of 51 iPad drawings culminated in a landmark exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2012 exhibited with a gigantic oil landscape with the same title as the series. As the title indicates, spring was central to the theme. Hockney noted, “In 2011 there was a wonderful spring, and I had planned to record it.” The present lot was completed on April 24, 2011 – mid-springtime – and is an exuberant celebration of life in bold verdant color.
Hockney worked en plein air, in the tradition of a long lineage of landscape artists who desired to capture the immediacy of the outdoors. Just as these artists utilized the innovation of paint in tubes to take their work outside of the studio, Hockney also realized the potential present in the latest technology of his time – the iPad.
Hockney began drawing with software apps with his first iPhone in 2008, and progressed to the iPad in 2010. He remarked, ‘'I do think the iPad is a new art form,” and devoted the same level of seriousness to it as his forays into other mediums such as photography and other forms of printmaking.
In the series, Hockney returned to specific locations in order to repeat the same subject under varying conditions of time and weather. The tree stump present in this work is one such motif Hockney revisits several times. The drawings juxtapose the passage of time with the fixed nature of a place like East Yorkshire, which Hockney has remarked has stayed much the same throughout the years. These repetitive observations are similar to Claude Monet’s meditations on light in his series of haystacks or the façade of the Rouen Cathedral.
A group of 51 iPad drawings culminated in a landmark exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2012 exhibited with a gigantic oil landscape with the same title as the series. As the title indicates, spring was central to the theme. Hockney noted, “In 2011 there was a wonderful spring, and I had planned to record it.” The present lot was completed on April 24, 2011 – mid-springtime – and is an exuberant celebration of life in bold verdant color.