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Hockney's largesse as he gives big picture to Tate
By Amar Singh, Evening Standard 07.04.08
Standing tall: David Hockney in front of Bigger Trees Near Warter on its debut at the Royal Academy last summer
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David Hockney has donated his largest ever work to the Tate. The 70-year-old artist — regarded as the founder of the British Pop Art movement — today presented Bigger Tress Near Warter to Tate Britain.
The 15ftx40ft oil painting was made on 50 canvas panels and took six weeks to create, making it Hockney's most labour-intensive work to date.
It depicts a Yorkshire landscape and was first exhibited last year at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
Hockney also presented the gallery with two digital photographic renderings of the painting on paper sheets in the same dimensions as the oil.
Tate director Nicholas Serota said: “The viewer is overwhelmed by the beauty of the winter trees and the energy of the Yorkshire landscape.
“In this work he has deftly joined together the tradition of painting en plein air with digital technology on a monumental scale. We are delighted he has decided to give this exceptional work to Tate.” The painting focusses on the arrival of spring before trees have come into leaf.
It features two copses, a mighty sycamore tree, buildings and a road curving to the left flanked by early flowering daffodils.
The work will go on display at Tate Britain in autumn next year.
Hockney said: “My picture is adaptable. You can split it in two and show one or both halves, or even a quarter of it. Or show the painting with two full-scale reproductions that would almost make a cloister.”
Hockney was unable to step back and view the whole work so had to use unusual methods to finish it.
He began by making drawings and used these to locate where each canvas would fit in the composition.
From these, a computer-mosaic of the picture was generated enabling him to “step back”, albeit in a virtual space. Hockney was then able to take the individual canvas panels to the site and thus create his enormous work over a six-week period.
Bigger Tress Near Warter joins seven other Hockney paintings in the Tate collection.
