David Hockney once said, “All art is contemporary, if it’s alive, and if it’s not alive, what’s the point of it?” This might explain his usage of some of the most influential innovations of our time — fax machines, laser printers, office photocopiers, Polaroids — to produce art throughout his 60-year career.
His latest exhibition, called David Hockney’s Fresh Flowers, is no exception. In it, Hockney creates art using a medium that more than a few of us are familiar with: something called an iPhone. Apparently, BlackBerrys are “for secretaries and clerical workers,” according to Hockney, while iPhones are “for artists.”
The exhibition opens at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum on Oct. 8 and runs until Jan. 1, 2012. The exhibit also marks Hockney’s first major show in Canada in more than 20 years.
The British-born artist, who is hearing-impaired, first picked up an iPhone in 2008.
“The iPhone brought communication back into his life,” says Charlie Scheips, the exhibition’s curator and a close friend of Hockney’s. “His hearing loss brought him to the phone, and then the paintings became an amusement to pass to his friends.”
Hockney would create these bright digital paintings in the early morning at his home in Yorkshire, England, and then e-mail his friends his newest creations.
At first, he painted sunrises. Then, one morning, when the sunrise hit a vase of flowers, Hockney painted that, too, and then one vase of flowers soon became hundreds and hundreds, leaving little wonder as to how the title of Hockney’s exhibit came to be.
Hockney uses the “brushes” app, a small virtual paintbox on the phone’s screen, to create his portraits of flowers, plants, landscapes and still lifes.
After the iPad’s introduction in 2010, he was able to develop more complex and diverse works, thanks to the tablet’s larger screen and the usage of a stylus.
To date, Hockney has created more than 1,000 images on his iPhone and iPad. The Toronto showcase, which is the only confirmed one in North America, will feature 100 iPhone drawings displayed on 20 iPod Touches, in addition to 100 iPad drawings displayed on 20 iPads. There will also be a triptych slide show of 169 other images and two films featuring Hockney working his magic on an iPad.
Architect Ali Tayar drew inspiration from the artist’s studio in England when designing the exhibition.
“The idea is to play down the Apple equipment component of the iPhone and iPad so the look isn’t overpowered by the technology and the viewer’s attention is focused on David’s art,” says Tayar. “The design’s element had to support the work.”
So Tayar mounted the iPhones and iPads on white oak–lined panels of medium-density fibreboard, and, from the same material, he created a banquette platform for visitors to watch the slide shows.
The banquette is a unique piece that’s been custom designed for the Toronto exhibition, as well as for its previous venues in Paris and Copenhagen.
“Toronto,” adds Tayar, “has the most exciting geometry we’ve ever encountered,” citing the exhibit’s “jagged walls” that are painted in colours “that have affinity to each other and which hark back to Paris and Copenhagen [blue for Copenhagen, red for Paris] to help tie the other venues with each other.”
The ROM’s soaring space also provides the opportunity to show a large number of images on the largest projectors yet used for the exhibition. There will also be a lot of light in the space because “video art is usually in the dark, and we wanted to be different,” says Tahar.
The biggest challenge of creating the exhibit was “how to convey the original artwork to the viewer, going from screen to projection and putting it together so the viewer is connected to David’s creative mind.” Another challenge is the question of Hockney’s latest artwork having relevance for posterity.
According to Schieps, the commercial art world seems to believe the jury is still out on Hockney’s iPhone/iPad period. In fact, the traditional art press is not even covering the exhibit. “The art world never really knew what to do about David,” Schieps says. “David’s fine with it. He’s never been about the money.”
However, the work seems to have paid off — even if not literally. (Hockney “still has to figure out” how to get paid from his paintings since there are no originals to sell.) The exhibit broke records in Paris and has also enjoyed a very successful run in Copenhagen.
“It’s a very special show,” says Tayar. “Everyone gets excited: kids, seniors, families.”
Adds Schieps: “David has an amazing, experimental mind. He’s able to turn something mundane into something amazing.”
But does this mean anyone who owns an iPhone can become an artist? They can try, says Schieps. But “it won’t be Hockney-esque.”
David Hockney’s Fresh Flowers: Drawings for the iPhone and iPad, Royal Ontario Museum, Oct. 8-Jan. 1
