1. David Hockney, Bigger Trees near Warter or/ou Peinture sur le Motif pour le Nouvel Age Post-Photographique, 2007, Öl auf Leinwand, 50-teilig, je 91.4 x 121.9 cm, total 457.2 x 1219.2 cm, 
Across the Atlantic, two artists are reconstructing what a landscape should looks like...
At the moment, two artists are dialoguing to each other. In one hand, the work of the renowned British artist David Hockney, which is mostly known for his swimming pool, his paintings made in California and his impressive landscape. In other hand, a new exhibition which open two weeks ago showcase the American artist Shara Hughes, the women who redefine the depiction of a landscape with her new series of imaginary landscape.
David Hockney - Moving Focus
Occupying most of the floor plan of the Kunstmuseum Luzern, the retrospective "David Hockney - Moving Focus" is the first and maybe one of the most important exhibitions of David Hockney in Switzerland, even more when Swiss museums don't have a lot of works by this artist.
The show, which is made chronically and thematically is showcasing more than 120 works, most of them coming from the Tate Collection and the foundation of the artist, but also private and public collections from all around Europe and the world.
In the first room of the exhibition, David Hockney is presented with his earliest works, when he's inspired by the cubist style created by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in 1907. Later on, this will lead to the importance of perspective and how he can find his perspective in his drawings and paintings. He will destroy the classical perspective rules, destroy what we conceived as the "normal" point of view of an object to shape it has he wish.
Later in the room, you have an important collage, which showcase his links to Henri Matisse by a quote : "For the first 54 years of the 20th century, Matisse made wonderful depictions of his world using color. Always very fresh, they still outshine everything else. I am very honored and happy to have the opportunity to present my work alongside his." (31.3.2022).
This might be one of the reasons to move to Los Angeles in 1963, to have a new life under the bright sunshine of the openminded community of this city. In this time, he produced his world famous swimming pool paintings... Further more, the exhibition present a striking room of his double portrait and a room dedicated to his rarely seen drawings.
In one of those double portrait titled "George Lawson and Wayne Sleep" from 1972-1975, David Hockney decided to create this huge painting depicting George Lawson and Wayne Sleep. From the series of double portrait he made between 1968 and 1977, this is one of the last one and the only unfinished picture of the series, showcasing his process and his creative thought.
While the subject is George Lawson, an antiquarian book dealer sitting on a stool against a wall, one of his hand holds down a key on the keyboard, but his body is turned away, towards the open window and Wayne Sleep. The ballet dancer is leaning against the doorframe while looking at George.
While Sleep was introduced to David Hockney by Lindy Dufferin (the wife of Sheridan Dufferin, the business partner of Hockney’s dealer Kasmin), they became friends. Later on, Hockney introduced Sleep to Lawson, who said of Hockney’s portrayal of the dancer that "the pose was interesting. Wayne was looking at me at the keyboard, standing and listening. I think it was a nice conceit that he had a ballet dancer not moving just listening.".
In the portrait, many themes are present: the importance of narrative, the link between two people, their relation, etc.
Finally, the next three rooms are dedicated to the most know works of Hockney, his landscape (sometime in multiple canvases), his new works where he made a full view of his studio with 3,000 photographs and a few paintings that appears in the image.
While the genre of landscape his a genre traditionally dominated by men, Hughes don't look back in the past, she makes her own steep. While she makes clear link to the cliché of a landscape with the use of flowers, forest and clear view of the sun or the moon, she's leave her picture unfinished.
While her practice start with a layer of fluid ink, she later put her paint onto this surface, which dictate what this picture will look, his mood and his power. All of this by imagination, while looking at the window from her studio.
Shara Hughes - Time Lapsed is also a work, a small series of works on paper which introduce the exhibition.
Informations about the exhibitions
Place: Kunstmuseum Luzern
Date: 9.7.2022 – 30.10.2022 (David Hockney - Moving Focus) & 17.9.2022 - 20.11.2022 (Shara Hughes - Time Lapsed)
Curators: Fanni Fetzer (Shara Hughes - Time Lapsed & David Hockney - Moving Focus) and Helen Little (David Hockney - Moving Focus)
Ticket: Available on the website of the Kunstmuseum Luzern OR at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Kunstmuseum Luzern
Kunstmuseum Luzern
Europaplatz 1
CH-6002 Luzern
Phone: +41 41 226 78 00