![]() No doubt, over time, I will find more to examine and to glean greater understanding of what these late work represent. ![]() Nevertheless, I am pleased to have purchased this book and enjoy much that is in it. The trouble with an exhibition and catalogue that is so inclusive is that the overall effect is diluted, which, I feel, is the case in this instance. The drawings, as ever are excellent and the smaller works and sketchbooks are interesting, but it is the large works that impress. But all of the best paintings are of great scale smaller test pieces, experiments and such like have little of the detail and finish you might expect as Hockney uses his broad strokes on canvas, paper and iPad,while reaching towards his monumental goals. A key picture is the Sermon on the Mount, by Claude Lorraine in which Hockney attempts to approach and make his own in much the same way as Picasso wrestled with Velazquez: the finished picture, a vast array of 30 canvases is a thing to wonder at and enjoy. It is the sheer scale of some of the works in which the true beauty of Hockney's painting resides he has done for Yorkshire what he had previously done for the Hollywood hills. This book, the catalog of the first major Hockney museum exhibition in many years, offers a glorious view of the landscape as seen by the artist, and it includes not only his recent paintings but also his iPhone and iPad drawings. In part, this is because so many of the works are experiments and working statements in paint that result in the far fewer works that are of immense scale. Certainly, there is innovation, but few would happily grace the walls of the sitting room. ![]() In some ways, this might be an epithet applicable to Hockney in relation to these Yorkshire works. However, I am reminded of a comment by Braque commending Picasso for his innovation, but saying that he was no painter. Hockney's RA exhibition and this catalogue has received much praise that is well deserved: he is probably the greatest living artist of our time, comparable, in several ways, with Picasso in his era.
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