David Hockney Normandism at Rouen Museum of Fine Arts

David Hockney Normandism, Rouen Museum of Fine Arts, March 22 — September 22, 2024.

As part of the Normandie Impressionniste Festival, Rouen Museum of Fine Arts presents the exhibition David Hockney Normandism from March 22 till September 22, 2024. The exhibition contains Hockney’s paintings and prints, all coming from the artist’s own collection and created in Normandy, where Hockney has been living since 2019.

Following the general theme of the Normandie Impressionniste Festival, the exhibition juxtaposes Hockney’s works with paintings by the Impressionists. (Though to me, this juxtaposition seems to stem from a bureaucratic requirement to fit Hockney’s exhibition into the festival, rather than from a curatorial choice aimed at enhancing visitors perception and understanding of Hockney’s art). An interesting feature of the exhibition are screens showing how Hockney created some of his artworks. But more on this below.

Self-portrait, 22 November 2021, acrylic on canvas, artist’s collection.

The Moon Room: Monet and iPad

You enter a dark blue room and find yourself surrounded by fifteen nocturnal landscapes identical in size and rhythmically positioned on the walls. The only light seems to come from fifteen moons, spreading first within the canvases and then further into the room. The effect is enchanting and you do not want to leave for a while.

The Moon Room, detail.

Apart from this mesmerising visual experience, two things were interesting to me here. The first is a clear reference to Monet, whose name is also mentioned on one of the walls. A few images even seem to cite his haystacks, although in Hockney’s works these are trees of similar shape.

The second striking thing was to realise that only two of the fifteen landscapes were actually painted. The other thirteen were prints of images created on iPad. And indeed, if you look closer, you see clear traces of iPad drawing tools.

Landscapes from 2020, painted on iPad, printed on paper, mounted on aluminium, artist’s collection.

My first reaction to this was disappointment: it seemed that a unique artistic creation, such as a painting, was replaced by something that could be mass produced, in this case, a digital image for printing. But after pondering this for a while, I realised that iPad is simply another tool that artists added to their toolkit, much like once-new oil paint or tube paint. Of course, this tool does affect the way an artwork looks, but does not make it less valuable, or aesthetically pleasing, or emotionally charged, or intellectually interesting than a painting. In fact, a text on the wall quotes Hockney saying: “If the iPad had existed in his time, Claude Monet would have used it!” (Still, I myself need some time to get used to this new tool and to learn to appreciate what artists create with it).

The Moon, 9 August 2023 (left), 25 August 2023 (right), acrylic on canvas, artist’s collection.

An interesting side effect of using iPad to “paint” is that artists can record the whole process of creating an artwork. The exhibition presents several such recordings.

Portraits

Hockney’s portraits in this exhibition are all but one of the same size and format, mostly vertical, only two horizontal. All models sit, primarily in a wooden chair, one man in his tractor, and one couple at a table.

What I like about these portraits (and what seems to be the case with many other Hockney’s portraits) is that they are at the same time sketchy and precise. With a limited amount of brushstrokes and colours Hockney seems to be able to convey the character of each sitter.

Portrait room, detail.

Another interesting feature, in my opinion, is that the sitters are positioned against a completely white background as if they are hanging in the air together with their chairs. Only in two portraits the floor is sketched. This makes you focus on the figures and reinforces rich colours of the paintings.

Finally, it is noticeable that the images are cropped from below in a seemingly random manner: some figures fit into the canvas completely, while others have parts of their legs cut by the bottom of the frame. In my opinion, this adds to the spontaneity and liveliness of the portraits.

Final remark

What I really like about this exhibition is that it offers diverse visual, intellectual, and emotional experience. You can at the same time enjoy looking at somewhat familiar figurative landscapes, ponder the connection between Hockney and Monet, be somewhat frustrated by the use of technology and overwhelmed by the magic of moonlight in Hockney’s canvases.