After Blake: Less is Known than People Think
A previously unseen painting by David Hockney, titled After Blake: Less is Known than People Think, is set to be revealed for the first time in the largest exhibition devoted to one of Britain’s foremost living artists. The work will be displayed alongside hundreds of previously unknown Hockneys at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris from April.
Inspired by a watercolour by William Blake, the enigmatic composition will appear alongside new paintings, created within recent weeks and months, as well as those that have been hidden from view for decades in the artist’s studio or in private collections. Other previously unseen works include a new self-portrait, Play within a Play, which shows the artist contemplating his own art.
The exhibition will feature the Bradford-born artist’s best-known paintings, including A Bigger Splash, as well as showcasing Hockney’s multidisciplinary talent as a painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. Over the past two years, Hockney has worked closely with the show’s curator, Sir Norman Rosenthal, to bring together the extensive collection of works.
The show will also feature a whole floor devoted to Hockney’s Normandy paintings, created on iPad and canvas, almost none of which have been seen before. Among many previously unseen portraits is one of Rosenthal himself, who spoke of the experience of being painted by Hockney. The exhibition will run from April 9 to September 1.
