Bozar pays tribute to David Hockney following iconic British artist’s death at 88

Among the outpouring of tributes following the death of British artist David Hockney on 11 June, Brussels arts centre Bozar has recalled the revolutionary painter’s “singular vision, innovative spirit and tireless celebration of life.”

The cultural institution has exhibited the work of the highly-popular painter in group and solo shows since the 1960s, when Hockney was first associated with the pop art movement.

It dedicated a first retrospective to him in 1992, as well as a more recent sell-out show in the winter of 2021-2022 that featured his latter series of digital paintings alongside the landmark works that forged his international reputation.

As Bozar director Christophe Slagmuylder says: “Hockney was endlessly surprising: an artist who never stopped researching, experimenting and expanding the possibilities of painting and image-making: from portraits and landscapes to polaroids and iPad paintings.”

The artist left an indelible mark on art history, he added, pointing out that “his work reminded us to look again — at colour, at nature, at one another — with curiosity and joy.”

The director proffers the example of his digital series The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020. “It was born from his famous message during the pandemic: “Remember, they can’t cancel spring!” 

Hockney’s final exhibition in Belgium was an ode to the nature that inspired these outdoor works. Le Chant de la Terre (The Song of the Earth) at Mons’ fine arts museum last autumn drew 70,000 visitors. The Hainaut city said it would “cherish the memory of a person as talented as he was profoundly humane” in a social media post.

Born in Bradford, Yorkshire, in 1937, Hockney studied at the Royal College of Art in London before moving to the US to teach art.

He settled in Los Angeles where his vibrant, sun-bathed paintings of swimming pools imbued with an eerie stillness drew immediate acclaim.

One of his famous works from this period, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold for €90 million in 2018; a record for a living artist.

Hockney’s carefree depiction of the intimacy of gay life before decriminalisation was just one strand of the quiet subversiveness that was present throughout his life.

But it was his constant reinvention and experimentation as an artist, as well as his prolific output even as he battled ill health, that sealed his reputation as one of contemporary art’s most important figures.

A fierce libertarian, a defiant smoker, an irreverent commentator on life, David Hockney possessed an authentic artistic gaze that proved to be imperceptibly powerful while he himself was continually enveloped in public affection.

Photos: David Hockney exhibition at Bozar 2021 ©Philippe De Gobert; The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011- 30 April ©David Hockney/Collection Ernst; Self Portrait II, 14th March 2012 ©David Hockney, Courtesy Galerie Lelong