David Hockney: Moving Focus, Artle: Wordle for Art Lovers

David Hockney 1937 -

David Hockney's works are currently on display in museums and galleries in Europe and the U.S.

Hockney moved to a farmhouse in Normandy in 2019 and painted the changing of the seasons on his iPad. He put together 220 of the iPad drawings to create a 314-foot frieze that is currently on display in an ongoing exhibit at the Salts Mill Gallery in Yorkshire.

An exhibit comparing Hockney's work alongside of those of Henri Matisse is on display at the Matisse Museum in Nice. Hockney's works, in a variety of media, are on exhibit at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. A retrospective of his works, called The Moving Focus, including works from the Tate collection, is being shown at the Kuntsmuseum in Lucerne. Hockney created the Moving Focus series, in which he dealt with time, space and perspective. Works from the Moving Focus series are available at VFA.

Hockney has always been interested in technology, from the wide-angle lens camera to the iPad. Because of the backlighting on the iPad, he can draw at night, or at daybreak, creating paintings like Early Morning, and My Shirt and Trousers, available at VFA.

"There's a speed to the iPad that's fascinating," he said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Company, "because any draftsman is interested in speed, quickness. I was sitting on my bed in Bridlington and I said, 'Look at that cup just there. Now watch.' I just opened the iPad and drew it. I hadn't moved. I hadn't got up for a glass of water. I hadn't got up to get a brush. I hadn't got up to get anything. So I drew the cup at the moment of inspiration. I simply said, 'Oh, it's a good shape. I'll draw it.' Whereas even a little box of watercolours, you might have to get up, get a glass, do this, do that. So there's a fantastic speed to it, if you carry it about like I do and treat it like a sketchpad."

Artle: Wordle for Art Lovers

The National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington has launched Artle, a new game for art enthusiasts. Based on the popularity of Wordle, the game shows players four works of art from its extensive collection of 155,00 works by 15,000 artists.

The player is shown a work of art and asked to guess the artist. If the first guess is incorrect the player is shown a second work by the artist, then a third and a fourth. The artist's identity is revealed after four guesses.

Many of the artists are easily identifiable by art lovers, but many are not.

A great feature of the game is a link that goes to a site with more information about the artist and their artworks.

Please contact us if you would like more information about the works of David Hockney or any of the other fine artists whose works are available at VFA.