Diary
David Hockney and other big-ticket art shows
[ LONDON ]
Gone native
21 JAN-9 APR
DAVID HOCKNEY RA: A BIGGER PICTURE
When David Hockney got an iPhone, the lives of his friends instantly became more colourful. Yes, it’s good to talk, but Hockney was more excited by the possibility of using it as a visual tool and soon little iPhone drawings were dropping into the inboxes of people on his contacts list. Then the larger iPad was introduced and he moved on to that. A major exhibition opening at London’s Royal Academy this month includes examples of these digital drawings, which those who have already seen them describe as wonderfully fresh and free.
At the other end of the scale, the show also displays new wall-filling oils on multiple canvases, glorying in the seasonal changes of the English countryside. These have all been painted in recent years around Bridlington in Yorkshire, on England’s breezy north-east coast. After two decades in the bleached light of California – where he produced most of the Pop works for which he’s best known – Hockney has returned to home territory: he was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, in 1937.
The exhibition is part of the London 2012 Festival, the city’s cultural counterweight to this summer’s Olympic Games. ‘I couldn’t give a monkey’s about the Olympics,’ said Hockney at the show’s press launch, with a Yorkshire bluntness as rooted as the copses, hedgerows and crops in his native landscapes. www.royalacademy.org.uk
AROUND THE bmi NETWORK
MORE BIG ART
[ COPENHAGEN ]
Hirst at Arken
In September last year, London’s Merla Art Foundation donated eight works by Damien Hirst to Copenhagen’s museum of modern art, Arken. They are now on permanent view in a special Hirst room and include the artist’s largest ever spot painting – made for Arken – alongside two works on loan from the White Cube in London. www.arken.dk
[ FRANKFURT ]
Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye
There’s far more to Munch than The Scream. This wide-ranging show at the Schirn looks at the Norwegian artist’s work with photography, film and modern stage design – although there are plenty of paintings too, some 60 of them, plus works on paper. It runs from 9 Feb to 13 May. www.schirn.de/en
[ LONDON ]
The Mystery of Appearance
The Haunch of Venison gallery, off New Bond Street, has an exhibition of 10 important post-war British painters, with 40 works – including some that haven’t been on public display for decades – by big-hitters including Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Patrick Caulfield, Lucian Freud and, again, Hockney. It runs until 18 Feb. www.haunchofvenison.com
[ VIENNA ]
Klimt in Vienna
In 2012 eight Viennese museums are holding special exhibitions to mark what would have been Gustav Klimt’s 150th birthday. Highlights include ‘Klimt – Drawings’ at the Albertina (from 14 Mar), which features the Study of a Woman’s Head (below); ‘Klimt. The Wien Museum Collection’ at the Wien Museum, which puts on display over 400 sketches, posters and paintings (from 16 May); and a massive retrospective at the Upper Belvedere entitled ’150 Years of Gustav Klimt’ (from 15 June). www.wien.info/en
