David Hockney. 220 for 2020 (Limited Edition)

Hardcover, 2 volumes in a clamshell box; Vol. 1: 43.6 x 31.2 cm, 236 pages; Vol. 2: 28 x 19.8 cm, 174 pages

The course of the seasons in an artist’s book of iPad paintings

From a small, picturesque farmhouse in the rich fields and meadows of Normandy, David Hockney followed the changing seasons across 2020 and into the new year. He used his iPad to spontaneously depict impressions of the landscape surrounding him, catching the first spring blossoms, the smell of summer, the saturated colours of autumn, and the stark shapes of dark branches in winter time. The 220 (plus four bonus) iPad paintings in this book are printed with up to seven special colours to match the richness of the artist’s vision and tipped in on a dark blue paper stock. A short introduction by Hockney reveals how this planned project became a lifeline during the COVID lockdown, from which he spread his message of hope: “Remember they can’t cancel the spring.”

The book is accompanied by a smaller extra volume of ink and watercolour drawings: the complete facsimiles of two sketchbooks from 2019, starting in the vicinity of the artist’s Los Angeles home and following him along scouting trips around Normandy. Both volumes come in a clamshell box with the artist’s iPad painting of an aerial view of the Normandy house and garden on the inside of the lid.

David Hockney (born July 9, 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. He first emerged in the early 1960s during the height of British pop, then moved to Los Angeles in 1964, where he famously painted a series of swimming pool pictures. Alongside the classic genres of portraiture and landscape, he always kept evolving his art, using technologies such as Polaroids, photocopiers and fax machines, digital video, or the iPhone and iPad as tools for his painting. Since his first big survey exhibition, which in 1970 traveled Europe from the Whitechapel Gallery in London, he has been one of the most widely shown and popular artists of our time.