Increasingly frail but with undimmed passion, Britain’s David Hockney has put aside his health worries to shape in Paris what he describes as the biggest exhibition of his vast career.
With around 400 works over four floors, drawn from museums and private collections worldwide, the exhibition at the Louis Vuitton Foundation is a stunning tribute to one of the world’s bestselling living artists.
Although titled “David Hockney 25” and mostly focused on the last quarter-century of his life, it also contains paintings from his early career, as well as his blockbuster time in California in the 1960s.
In the last of 11 rooms there are several unseen creations from the past two years, including a self-portrait in acrylic and a striking meditation on the afterlife inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy.
“[The show] has enabled him to look back in a positive way,” said Norman Rosenthal, guest curator and a long-time friend of Hockney, ahead of its opening to the public on April 9. “He’s very, very happy with the exhibition.”
