three trees near thixendale

spring 2008
oil on eight canvases, 183.5 x 489.6 cm

Image © Wurth Colletion, Image © David Hockney. All Rights Reserved.

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20.01.12: painting details

Three Trees Near Thixendale, Spring 2008 is one of four pieces that David Hockney painted from the same spot during the winter and summer of 2007, and the spring and autumn of 2008. No matter which picture you observe you cannot fail to be impressed with his vivid colours. Spring's here again, the winter has surrendered to the new beginnings found in a springtime lansdacpe, but spring passes into summer and you are all too acutely aware of it here. The emerging wildflowers and foliage coming into leaf recall the ghosts of the seasons past and remind us that with their emerging they too will die in the cycle of the seasons. All things must pass.

For me the piece is bittersweet. On one level it is beautiful, the colours, the light, the greeness but it is tinged with melancholy. Beyond the canvas another season awaits, beyond the hills maybe, and it is hard to get that thought out of my mind.

Only the greatest artists can hint at something and make you feel 'something' on a deeper level - a level words cannot possibly describe or even approach. Look at the piece, really look at it, and without trying to undertand it let it wash over you. Then ask yourself how it makes you feel. There is something there, something approaching melancholy.

Hockney's use of multiple canvases makes you think you're standing by the artist at his easel, almost overwhelmed by the vastness of the landscape. It is after all 183.5 x 489.6 cm.

It is not surprising that the four pieces are displayed in the Royal Academy's Central Hall for Hockney's epic exhibition (not a retrospective) A Bigger Picture (London: 21 January - 9 April 2012). The Wolds are brought to evocative life in the humdrum of the centre of London.

How magical is that?

Don't just take my word for it. Time and again, people who have been to the exhibition have been moved to tears by the sheer beauty of it.

Not many exhibitions are capable of that.

Text: Paul Page, 2012

20.01.12: a bigger picture book & exhibition

David Hockney - A Bigger Picture, UK Book.
Accompanies the acclaimed 2012 Royal Academy Exhibition. Details: here. Details: exhibition.

Book Available: Amazon.co.uk| Amazon.com (US)

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Painting: Wurth Colletion
Image © David Hockney
All Rights Reserved.