David Hockney’s My Window charts his iPad paintings in chronological order

Compiled and published by Taschen, the book features 120 drawings drawn on his iPad between 2009 – 2012, giving an intimate insight to the artist’s daily life.

Date
2 December 2019

Arguably one of the UK’s best loved and most inspirational artists, 82-year-old David Hockney showed dedication to remaining at the forefront of his pop art canon when in 2009 he began experimenting with a new medium – the iPhone. Far beyond a dabble in the digital realm, the pop art stalwart continued to develop his work by moving to iPad, a larger canvas to realise his compositions and their detail.

Now Taschen has published a large format compendium of his iPad paintings made between 2009 – 2012, organised chronologically by Hockney himself, giving an intimate insight to the artist’s daily life. Simple and repetitive in content, the book’s title My Window gives away its focus: each painting showing his view through the same window, as time travels through changing seasons and weathers.

In each painting, Hockney brings his charm and vivid approach to colour palette to a humdrum subject matter, depicting tiled rooftops, street lights, tree branches, construction cranes, clouds and raindrops. The beauty is in his capture of light, whether on the underside of a cloud at sunset, its refraction through a vase, or the beams of a desk lamp.

"Each image captures a fleeting moment," says Taschen in a statement, "from the colourful sunrise and lilac morning sky to nighttime impressions and the arrival of spring. We experience the passage of time through the eyes of David Hockney."

The artist has always been known for his work with light, his best known paintings capturing the swimming pools of sunny LA, and with new technology, incorporating Polaroids, fax machines and digital video before turning to Apple devices.

Then, in 2017, Hockney gave us all an even bigger surprise when he redesigned The Sun newspaper masthead, also using his iPad – showing he has always got a trick up his sleeve.

My Window is designed by Hans Werner Holzwarth, and published by Taschen.

GalleryTaschen: David Hockney. My Window

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Taschen: David Hockney. My Window

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Jenny Brewer

Jenny oversees our editorial output across work, news and features. She was previously It’s Nice That's news editor. Get in touch with any big creative stories, tips, pitches, news and opinions, or questions about all things editorial.

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