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He continues to create, the celebrated painter. At 88 years old, with over six decades of professional experience which has propelled him to the pinnacle in the modern art world, Hockney is still painting, constantly exploring, still innovating, and still having shows.

A Glimpse into the Exhibition

This exhibition – debuting in a prestigious central London venue for Annely Juda, his gallery since the 1990s – is filled with artworks so new you can almost smell the wet paint. The initial gallery features intensely vibrant still life compositions: chairs, tables, fruit and flowers. It’s the most old-fashioned and staid of subject matter, but nothing Hockney does is that dull, is it?

His Van Gogh-y wicker chairs glow in bright yellow and vivid purple; his floors present bold contrasts with red, yellow, and orange forms; his fruit depictions are simple, elemental, and youthful. Throughout, he experiments with his concept of “reverse perspective”, aiming to mirror true human vision, not the static view of life found in photos and traditional art. So everything looks wobbly and twisted. The legs of his chairs spread out, his tablecloths warp. I don’t think it’s any closer to “real” perspective compared to conventional techniques, yet the dizzying, uneasy sensation it produces is engaging and amusing. Photos of gardens are pasted into some of the compositions – brief peeks into a muted English setting that enhance the vividness and cheerfulness of the overall artwork.

His work is always intriguing … Flowers on a Garden Table, a recent creation.

The Evolution of Brushwork

What is unmistakable is how much shakier these brush marks are compared to earlier works. Traditional Hockney pieces are confident, so in command of his paintbrush, but these new works are almost shockingly unsteady. The strokes are filled with shakes and vibrations, the lines are all over the shop, bits of white underpainting poke out everywhere. They border on chaotic, yet they are instantly, distinctly, and unmistakably his. It makes for quite an emotional, affecting experience – we observe a legendary artist aging through his art. Compare all this with the very early works featured in a separate exhibition from several months ago and it evokes the sense of a career’s beginning and end, and the somber reality is somewhat difficult to accept, actually.

Portraits: A Mixed Reception

The portraits are where this show fails the hardest though. His method for depicting skin has shifted toward a pointillist style over the years and the result is a bunch of bodies that look as if they’re covered in sores. Every subject is patchy, flushed and marked, dabbed with pink and red hues with the exception of one individual who looks somewhat decayed. The figures are closer to fresh corpses than living beings with heartbeats and vitality. A triple portrait of a man in a mirror is conceptually interesting, yet the subject appears awkwardly waiting for his wife outside the John Lewis changing rooms. Only the self-portrait here depicting the artist working from a wheelchair really works, due to its raw openness, and its humorous self-reflection.

Serene and minimalist … 8th April 2020, No. 2.

Experiments with Technology

On the upper level, Hockney continues his iPad experiments with a series of “paintings” of the moon; all dark and moody, large radiant spheres suspended over darkened scenery. They feel quiet, austere, maybe a little sad. Criticisms of his digital art are unfounded – people complain about the lack of texture and brush marks and human touch, etc., yet in my view, they are impressive – an artist bending new technology to his will, demonstrating that regardless of the format, he preserves his distinctive artistic identity.

The Question of Prolificacy

However, do we really need yet another Hockney exhibition? There have been more than 10 shows of his work in London in the last eight or nine years alone, not to mention the giant retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris earlier this year, and this is not the final display. Another significant event is planned for 2026, as well. I love Hockney, but even I think enough might just be enough.

Nevertheless, I guess we should celebrate him while we can. Here, with all these new works with their imperfections, wit, and vibrancy, he demonstrates his ongoing dedication, and he’s still got it, all these years later.