David Hockney's Bigger Christmas Trees, 2023
David Hockney has always loved technology. He embraced the Polaroid camera when it first appeared, has been painting on his his iPad for years and helped curate an immersive show of his work in London this year.
This holiday season, Londoners can enjoy an amazing work that Hockney designed on his iPad at Apple’s new United Kingdom headquarters at the Battersea Power Station.
Hockney created two digitally-animated Christmas trees that will be projected onto the 328-foot tall chimneys of the building. The work, called Bigger Christmas Trees, will be displayed every evening from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. through Christmas.
A look at the progression of Hockney’s work is on exhibit at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut. Hockney/Origins: Early Works from the Roy B. and Edith J. Simpson Collection is an ongoing exhibit.
An expansive retrospective of Hockney’s work, going back to the 1950s through 2022 is currently being shown at the Honolulu Museum of Art. David Hockney: Perspective Should Be Reversed, Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation will be on exhibit through March 10, 2024.
The National Portrait Gallery in London is currently showing David Hockney: Drawing from Life. This exhibit was set to open in 2020, but was closed due to Covid. It is on display and will run through January 21, 2024.
We’re going to hear some Ho-Ho-Ho this season, but Mel Bochner’s Ha, Ha, Ha, is just as much fun and much more colorful.
Last year the Art Institute of Chicago presented an exhibit of work that looked at Bochner’s nearly 60-year career and his pioneering role in “redefining the traditional boundaries of drawing.”
Ha-Ha-Ha, available at VFA, is a a monoprint, made in oil collage, engraved and embossed on handmade paper.
The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York has been celebrating its 125th anniversary. The museum asked artists, whose works art part of the museum’s permanent collection, to curate exhibits of their own works alongside those of other artists whose works are part of the Parrish collection.
Artists include Donald Sultan, KAWS, Robert Longo, Eddie Martinez, Ugo Rondinone and other influential artists, whose works can be found at VFA.
Donald Sultan, who has been using industrial materials in his work since he moved to New York in 1975, curated a show for the Parrish that included artists who also used industrial materials and whose works have a feeling of strength and reflection.
Artists Choose Parrish will run through February 18, 2024.
And if you’re looking to brighten someone’s spirits…Flowers by Andy Warhol would always be appreciated.
References:
Julia Binswanger. David Hockney Illuminates London’s Battersea Power Station With Digital Christmas Trees. Smithsonian Magazine. December 5, 2023.
Rhea Nayyar. How David Hockney’s Early Experiments Shaped His Iconic Style. Hyperallergic. December 4, 2023.
Veronica Esposito. Hockney in Hawaii: museum curates artist’s largest print exhibition to date.
