David Hockney at Tate Britain: blistering in scale, depth and presentation

Ever vibrant and joyful, Hockney deploys ranges of colour in a way that never bores or wearies.

Pretty much the whole range of David Hockney’s work over the last  sixty years is currently on display at Tate Britain. This is the third exhibition of Hockney’s work in recent years in London.

There were the remarkable landscapes shown at the Royal Academy, some using iPad technology, which was accompanied by a superb television profile. Huge pictures on a grand scale showing in vivid colour Hockney’s abiding love for his home country and county. I loved that exhibition, the pictures and how they were presented.

Then there was the array of ’82 Portraits and 1 Still Life’ also at the Royal Academy last year. I could not settle in to this exhibition. It did not help that the show was held in what seemed like an attic space and required flogging up a narrow staircase, and that the space for the exhibition seemed cramped and dark. I had been looking forward to it, but did not enjoy it. My failing not Hockney’s.

This new exhibition is absolutely blistering in its scale, depth, scope and presentation. There is so much going on in any one room at any given moment that it’s a huge effort of will to move on. Yet one is compelled to see what there is just around the corner.

Sixty years is a long period of time – politics, habits, social conventions, economies, environments all evolve and change. This is reflected in the work on display. Two things do remain constant: Hockney’s ability to change and master new styles, and his use of colour. Ever vibrant and joyful, he deploys ranges of colour in a way that never bores or wearies.

His embrace of new technology is also impressive. His use of the iPad as an instrument that delivers a vast breadth of vision and colour is extraordinary. The device is now so familiar, so ubiquitous, that one can be lulled into a false sense that anyone could deliver such pictures. It is of, of course, the great well of creativity and energy that gives David Hockney his power in his chosen mediums. The other ability Hockney has is to appeal and inspire across the generations. His work has something for all ages. My children, teenagers, adore going and seeing his pictures.

This maybe a retrospective but the dynamism and vision that has propelled the past sixty years shows no sign yet of letting up, thank goodness. It’s a wonderful exhibition and if you have the chance go and see it.