THe Museum of Modern Art Wakayama presents the exhibition Hockney’s Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm.
An England-born artist David HOCKNEY (1937-) is one of the most popular artists in the world. His works are approachable enough for us even though they show his keen insight into the world. He has displayed his talents across a wide variety of media like painting, printmaking, photography, and stage design for opera, and in recent years, he has also been attracting much attention with his novel study on western art history, Secret Knowledge (2001), and works drawn with iPhone and iPad. In this exhibition, his print works from 1960’s to 1980’s will be mainly presented from our collections so that you will enjoy their fascination.
The show begins with one of his representative etching works of his early age, A Rake’s Progress (1961-1963), and continues to the feature-length etching work, Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm (1969), which is a portfolio consisting of six concertina illustrated books and 39 separated sheet prints. These story-based pictures are humorous and witty, showing his proficiency in drawing and his sharpened sensitivity to techniques. Besides, in The Blue Guitar (1976-1977), Hockney counterposes variant styles and print techniques, to focus on art and printing itself. Hockney learned one of the techniques from Aldo Crommelynck, who was a master printer for Pablo Picasso. The specific technique, developed by Crommelynck for Picasso — yet Picasso himself didn’t have any chances to try it — enabled Hockney to draw improvisationally on color etchings. These three etching series will be a proper door for you to step into printing, especially etching techniques and their attractiveness.
Lithography works like Weather Series (1973) are, in very Hockney style, attractive with his jolly sense of color. In addition, some other meaningful works will be on view: Lithograph of Water, dealing with the expression of water and the printing of lithography, and Ponden Hall (1983), a photo-collage, on which two-dimensional plane a number of viewpoints and continuous time are brought. You can also find interests in the lithographic works in 1970’s and 1980’s made with a collaborative work with Kenneth Tyler’s workshop. There, prints were made by all possible means — technically and financially– at that time, which seems to be almost impossible to realize today. It would also be possible to reconsider contemporary printmaking after 1960 through Hockney’s works. But above all, to follow Hockney’s thrilling footsteps will be pleasant enough: how Hockney developed and deepened his own expression through printmaking.
The Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama
February 11 – March 25, 2012
Open 9:30 to 17:00
Closed on Monday