David Hockney
15th March 2021, Flowers in a Jug, 2021
iPad Painting Printed on Paper
89 x 63.5cm unframed
In his suite of twenty flower iPad paintings, a body of work first published by the German newspaper Die Welt and thereafter debuted at Musée Matisse in Nice, Hockney captures...
In his suite of twenty flower iPad paintings, a body of work first published by the German newspaper Die Welt and thereafter debuted at Musée Matisse in Nice, Hockney captures varying arrangements of blooms set against a backdrop of gingham tablecloths and burgundy walls. “I was just sitting at the table in our house, and I caught sight of some flowers in a vase on the table,” Hockney explains. “A few days later I started another from the same position with the same ceramic vase. This took longer to do. I then realised if I put the flowers in a glass vase the sun would catch the water, and painting glass would be a more interesting thing to do. So then I was off.” Although some attributes vary from work to work—the species of flower, the color of the tablecloth—the repetitive semi-fixed setting allows viewers to admire a spectrum of floral compositions presented with contrasting tones and textures, highlighting Hockney’s propensity for balancing the central artistic elements of line, color, and perspective.