A Bigger Book, Art Edition A-D is a monumental compendium of David Hockney’s oeuvre that perfectly exemplifies his artistic prodigy in both digital and traditional creative methodology. It is accompanied by one of four flower drawings conceived through Hockney’s iPad – a non-traditional instrument that, by itself, has very little descriptive power. Adopted by the artist however, Hockney’s skillful layering of rudimentary marks quickly transform abstract artificial gestures into coherent reflections of everyday life depicted through careful observational exactness and tender nuance. The plant-pot motif is one that Hockney has loyally returned to throughout his long career; varying sizes of bulbous vases and myriad British flowers proliferate his works in various iterations, often set against a simple background that focuses the eye on the botanical detail. That Hockney depicts nature through something as antithetical as an electrical component creates a compelling tension between artist and medium; the natural world in the dawn of a technological age.
“I think just reproducing things so big, it makes you see things. It’s the scale of the book that is the beautiful thing.”
—David HockneyOver half a metre in length and weighing thirty-five kilograms, A Bigger Book is a 680-page chronology of Hockney’s life-time artistic output, accompanying his botanical print. An animated survey filled with bold colours and personal vitality, the book contains large-scale reproductions of Hockney’s most impressive works and is almost entirely visual. There is just one page of text, accompanying one of Hockney’s last works made in Bradford in 1953, before he went to the Royal College of Art. Stating, “A book like this shouldn’t have much text… you just need pictures”, underscores Hockney’s emphasis on aesthetic as opposed to textual, appreciating the works solely for how they appear. They don’t need explanation; the very size of the portfolio invites the beholder into an immersive world full of vibrant colour, wry wit and tangible human emotion.
Hockney doesn’t often look back, preferring to “live in the present”, so he describes. However, after working for ten months intimately with the publisher he found a surprising joy in meditating on his sixty-year career. Hockney asked himself rhetorically, “How do I see the world? Well, through time, which we can’t escape…” Centralising the passage of time as a framework through which to observe his varying styles and subject matter, Hockney ruminated on his previous obsessions –friends, lovers, pools and plants – embracing that which has been and gone.
In this way, A Bigger Book, Art Edition A-D pays homage to Hockney’s unique artistic vision; combining his old works with new iPad drawings unites past and present – as if “signing off” his chronological retrospective. Whether taken by the Californian swimming pools, the Yorkshire Dales, or dainty domestic flowerpots, A Bigger Book, Art Edition A-D provides a Hockney work for every feeling, every mood and every occasion: your very own at-home permanent Hockney exhibition.
