{"id":12773,"date":"2024-12-18T14:30:47","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T13:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12773"},"modified":"2024-12-18T09:38:16","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T08:38:16","slug":"david-hockney-bigger-and-closer-not-smaller-and-further-away-factory-international-aviva-studios-reviewed-by-liam-starkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12773","title":{"rendered":"David Hockney \u2013 Bigger and Closer (not smaller and further away) | Factory International @ Aviva Studios | Reviewed by Liam Starkey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>People may think Hockney is a little obvious or populist, but I realise Hockney is a quality artist.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Hockney.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>David Hockney \u2013 Bigger and Closer (not smaller and further away) | Factory International @ Aviva Studios 10 December 2024 \u2013 25 January 2025 | Reviewed by Liam Starkey<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Getting into the exhibition is a little disorientating. It\u2019s like going backstage on a TV set. The exhibition space is like a huge plushily carpeted room with low benches dotted round and a viewing platform. All four walls have a rolling projection of Hockney\u2019s art-work sometimes animated with a Hockney voice-over explaining his work. The friend accompanying me was babysitting a puppy and asked if she could bring a dog in a pram into the exhibition space (I\u2019d love to have some of what she\u2019s taking).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>As it was, there were lots of parents with small babies toddling around but no pooches.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The gallery has the atmosphere of a busy bus station with people coming and going all the time. Maybe some comfy chairs should have been provided as some people can\u2019t get comfortable in various yoga positions on the upholstered floor. One chap looked particularly uncomfortable, and I worried a chiropractor would be called. They need to think about this.<\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t learn much new about Hockney. I learned that perspective doesn\u2019t work in the Grand Canyon because it\u2019s an endless series of folds, but other sections about the controversial claim that the earliest cameras were used by Renaissance artists, I had seen in a Channel 4 documentary.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The opera set section was interesting, but I\u2019d seen the majority of it before in the book, <i>Hockney\u2019s Pictures<\/i> (Thames &amp; Hudson). I\u2019d had experience with this kind of thing before with the 2017 film \u2018Loving Vincent\u2019, an animation about the life of Vincent Van Gogh which was largely hand painted by Polish animators. LV was more captivating. I\u2019ve been covering Team Lab exhibitions in Asia and this was like a pale imitation of what can be achieved these days with animation, coding and graphics.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I came to this as a Hockney enthusiast; I left entertained and enchanted but underwhelmed.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The archive recordings of Hockney\u2019s voice were a little confusing. His younger voice sounds totally different and initially I thought it was a collaborator.<\/p>\n<p>In the section on Los Angeles I learned that Hockney moved to Los Angeles without knowing a soul which seemed brave but that he liked the sense of liberation on the West Coast for (not explicitly said) a gay man.<\/p>\n<p>I took some photos of the swimming pool nudes but Apple or O2 put a sensitivity notification on them before they reached my partner\u2019s phone.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It reminded me of IMAX, not Dune, which was the last IMAX film I saw, but earlier IMAX of undersea creatures I saw at the National Museum of Film and Photography (now the National Media Museum) in Hockney\u2019s native Bradford in the 1990s; sensuous flowing, light and images, wonderful rich saturated colour.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I liked the polaroid section and even considered experimenting with polaroid myself (I make collages). There were interesting discussions on time. Some of the exhibition was pleasantly \u2018meta\u2019. I was wondering if it was fascinating or just a load of polaroids stuck together. Is it art theory or just a load of bright colourful humorous paintings a la Beryl Cook?<\/p>\n<p>I have often felt that Hockney, like Isherwood, lives something of a charmed life. I liked the philosophical musing that \u2018there is no such thing as bad weather\u2019, but tell that to the residents of Valencia. I know he has had tragedy in his life when his assistant died after accidentally drinking drain fluid (Coroner\u2019s verdict: \u2018misadventure\u2019). <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Up until now I have found this spacecraft like structure on Water Street something of a mystery. I missed the Yayoi Kusama exhibition, and I think the price point of the exhibitions at \u00a325 for a standard ticket is a little high. But It\u2019s good to have world class art coming to Manchester on a regular basis.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to see some Hockneys for free, relatively locally, there is a rotating permanent Hockney exhibition at Saltaire model village in Bradford. There is also a collection at Lister Park Gallery in Bradford.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The exhibition is on until the 25<sup>th<\/sup> of January and some sessions are in high demand. I would consider going back to take it in again. People may think Hockney is a little obvious or populist, but I realise Hockney is a quality artist, and I might try re-buying the Hockney prints I sold on Ebay over the summer.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Reviewed by Liam Starkey<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People may think Hockney is a little obvious or populist, but I realise Hockney is a quality artist.\u00a0 David Hockney \u2013 Bigger and Closer (not smaller and further away) | Factory International @ Aviva Studios 10 December 2024 \u2013 25 January 2025 | Reviewed by Liam Starkey\u00a0 Getting into the exhibition is a little disorientating. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[12,283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.2.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>David Hockney \u2013 Bigger and Closer (not smaller and further away) | Factory International @ Aviva Studios | Reviewed by Liam Starkey - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12773\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"David Hockney \u2013 Bigger and Closer (not smaller and further away) | Factory International @ Aviva Studios | Reviewed by Liam Starkey - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"People may think Hockney is a little obvious or populist, but I realise Hockney is a quality artist.\u00a0 David Hockney \u2013 Bigger and Closer (not smaller and further away) | Factory International @ Aviva Studios 10 December 2024 \u2013 25 January 2025 | Reviewed by Liam Starkey\u00a0 Getting into the exhibition is a little disorientating. 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