David Hockney
Between the 22 October and 1 December the Alan Cristea Gallery will be exhibiting a new series of digital ink jet prints by David Hockney. Printed and editioned in Los Angles, the ten new works are remarkable both in terms of their technical brilliance and the scale of aesthetic inventiveness employed in their creation.
The images, printed on heavyweight textured paper in editions of 45, fall into two groups. The eight studio photographs Snails Space 1995 reveal the interior of Hockney's Los Angeles studio. From the first image, The Studio March 16th 1995 here begins a sequential development, culminating in the grand finale, Photograph of a Photograph of a painting with motif July 10th 1995. In an intoxicating mix of abstraction and figuration, the studio becomes the canvas, as Hockney fuses elements of painting, photography and installation. The second group, Flower Paintings with Motifs continues to explore the relationship between reality and illusion, but in a more intimate setting. Throughout, Hockney is uncompromising in his exploration of colour and illusionary space.
Each image is defined by an outstanding clarity of detail. The sophisticated print technology produces an exceptional intensity of colour. Hockney has achieved a vibrancy in the surface of these new prints which, as he modesty describes, "seems almost physical".