You might call this show ‘A Bigger Exhibition’. It is, in fact, the biggest David Hockney show ever, taking over the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris until August 31. It features more than 400 works from 1955-2025, gathered from international museums, private collections and Hockney's foundation.
Many come from his own collection — perhaps the ones he simply couldn't part with.Hockney poses for a portrait in Los Angeles, in 1980. (Image credit: Aaron Rapoport/Corbis/Getty Images)The show's actual title is David Hockney 25, since it focuses primarily (but not only) on the artist's last 25 years, including vibrantly colourful landscapes from his native Yorkshire and Normandy.
This focus was a decision made by Hockney and his partner, Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima, who were involved in every step of the exhibition's planning. A phrase in pink neon, in Hockney's handwriting, hangs on the building's facade: ‘Do remember they can't cancel the spring’.The links between Hockney and the Fondation go back to before the museum was even conceived.
The Fondation's artistic director, Suzanne Pagé, first exhibited Hockney's work in Paris in the early 1970s, when he was starting to gain international renown. Hockney is friends with the building's architect, Frank Gehry, whose portrait is in the show. The Fondation's president, Bernard Arnault, calls Hockney one of his favourite artists.
It is so easy to love Hockney's paintings that one might think of the work itself as easy. No.