PRESS RELEASE 10 April 2023

Museum of Contemporary Art TokyoDAVID HOCKNEY
15 JULY – 5 NOVEMBER 2023
The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo is pleased topresent the exhibition DAVID HOCKNEY (organized by theMuseum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, The Yomiuri Shimbun)
from July 15th to November 5th, 2023. This is the first large
scale solo exhibition in Japan in 27 years devoted to British
artist David Hockney (b.1937 in Bradford UK) who isregarded as one of the most innovative artists of the postwarera.
Hockney has produced diverse works in a variety of fieldsincluding painting, drawing, print work, photography, andstage design for over 60 years. Featuring a selection of 120
or so works including a number of the artist’s representative

1. No. 118, 16th March 2020, from "The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020", 2020,
Collection of the artist © David Hockney

works produced in the UK and Los Angeles, the series ofrecent large scale paintings The Arrival of Spring, and a 90-meter long new work drawn using the iPad during thelockdown period for COVID-19, the exhibition serves as an opportunity to fully experience the world of Hockney’soeuvre.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo houses 150 works by Hockney in its collection, and shortly after its opening,presented the exhibition David Hockney: Prints 1954 – 1995 in 1996. This long-awaited solo exhibition is conceived
as a result of this ongoing relationship between the artist and the museum, and is realized in full collaboration with theartist.

DAVID HOCKNEYDavid Hockney was born in Bradford, England, in 1937, and iscurrently working in Normandy, France. He studied at Bradford
College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. Upon
moving to Los Angeles in 1964, he came into the international
limelight with his works depicting life in sunny California. For oversixty years, he has explored and experimented with imagemaking. A major retrospective of his work was organized by Tate
Britain, the Centre Pompidou, and the Metropolitan Museum ofArt in 2017 in honor of his life as he reached his 80th birthday.
The exhibition broke the record for visitor numbers at Tate Britain,
with about a half million visitors. David Hockney is one of the mostversatile artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

2. David Hockney in Normandy, April 1st 2021 © David Hockney
Photo: Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima

HIGHLIGHTS
The first large scale solo exhibition in Japan in 27 years
This is Hockney’s first large scale solo museum exhibition to be held in Japan in 27 years, since his previous show in1996. Hockney has presented numerous exhibitions centering in Europe and the United States, and with both solo
exhibitions at the Royal Academy (London) in 2012 and Center Pompidou (Paris) in 2017 attracting more than 600,000
visitors each, Hockney can indeed be regarded as one of the most popular artists in the world today. This exhibition,
which traces over 60 years of Hockney's career through a diverse selection of representative works, will be the mostcomprehensive exhibition ever held in Japan.

The first showing in Asia of Hockney’s recent representative series The Arrival of Spring
Measuring approx. 10-meters wide by 3.5-meters high, Hockney’s oil painting, The Arrival of Spring, Woldgate, EastYorkshire in 2011(twenty eleven), created in 2011 in Hockney's hometown in East Yorkshire in England, will beexhibited for the first time in Asia. 12 large sized iPad drawings printed on paper will also be exhibited for the first timein Japan. Hockney’s remarkable works that dynamically capture the arrival of the vernal season through a rich senseof color are truly a sight to behold.

3. The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven), 2011, Centre Pompidou, Paris. Musée national d'art moderne-Centre de création industrielle© David Hockney Photo: Richard Schmidt

Experiencing the world of David Hockney, an artist of our times: A new 90-meter long scroll
painting is a must-see, and one of his latest self-portraits is unveiled to the public for thefirst time in the world
Hockney, who turns 86 years old in 2023, continues to devote himself to producing works and further innovating hisart. The exhibition introduces Hockney’s current life and practice, as an artist who has constantly been at the forefrontof the contemporary art scene for over 60 years and remains on his pursuit to actively present new works. The newworks produced during the COVID-19 pandemic, in a way that transcends differences in countries, cultures, andgenerations, contain messages that can be felt by us viewers because we are indeed living in the same age. We
welcome visitors to take this opportunity to directly witness and experience the many works that can only beencountered in these very times.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE EXHIBITION
The exhibition consists of eight sections. In 1959, Hockney enrolled at theRoyal College of Art in London. In an era when abstract expressionism andpop art were taking the Western art scene by storm, the young art student,
who despite learning from various styles and artists had strived to develop
his own means of expression without subscribing to a particular trend, soon
came to attract attention as a visionary of the times.
In 1964, Hockney moved to Los Angeles, where he painted pool surfaces
reflecting sunlight and sprays of water from lawn sprinklers inspired by therelaxed and casual atmosphere of Southern Californian life. Hockney's
artistic attempts to capture the ever-changing reflections of light andmovement of water have roused his interest for many years, leading to the

4. A Lawn Sprinkler, 1967, Museum of Contemporary
Art Tokyo © David Hockney

exploration of new painting materials and forms of depiction.
Hockney has also produced an extensive numberof portraits. His "double portraits" featuring twofigures as in his representative work Mr and Mrs
Clark and Percy (1970-71) has become a signaturepart of the artist’s oeuvre. Hockney focuses on
people with whom he has close relationships, suchas family, lovers, and friends. These portraits reflect
the artist’s calm and composed gaze, as hecarefully observes those in front of him so as toeven capture their very personality.

5. Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy, 1970-71, Tate: Presented by the Friends of the Tate Gallery 1971
© David Hockney

Hockney states, "I do not want to repeat myself too much, I would rather find something fresh, something new." As
exemplified by these words, Hockney had expressed a great admiration for Pablo Picasso, a master of 20th century
art who constantly changed and developed his artistic style throughout his career. The "photographic collage" andMoving Focus series, which were produced in the 1980s while drawing reference from Picasso’s cubist works andChinese picture scrolls, are groundbreaking works that recreate the actual experience of "seeing" within a twodimensional surface. This approach of integrating multiple perspectives has also been carried over to his recent"photographic drawings" and multi-channel video works.
All the works featured in the second half of this exhibition will be shown in Japan for the first time. Over the course of
15 or so years since 1997, Hockney has continued to depict the nature and sights of Eastern Yorkshire where he had
spent his childhood. As the title suggests, Bigger Trees Near Warter Or/Ou Peinture Sur Le Motif Pour Le Nouvel Age
Post-Photographique (2007) is a landscape painting of a massive scale produced through the method of painting en
plein air (‘in the open air’) in oils on multiple canvases in front of the trees that serve as its motif.

Furthermore, the iPad, which Hockney acquired as soon as it was first released in April 2010, opened up new frontiersfor his artistic practice. Composed of large scale oil paintings and iPad drawings, the series The Arrival of Spring,
Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 conveys Hockney’s outstanding ability to engage with a world that dramaticallychanges day by day and depict its transitions and transformations to utmost detail.
Since 2019, Hockney has been working in Normandy in Northwestern France. As the world came to a standstill dueto the unexpected outbreak of an unknown infection, Hockney, who was living in a remote region and found himself
little affected by such circumstances, continued to turn his gaze to the nature that surrounded him and the changing
seasons. This ultimately led to the production of the ambitious 90-meter long masterpiece, A Year in Normandie. This
exhibition serves to trace Hockney’s practice as an artist who attempts to earnestly capture the familiar everyday lifethat unfolds before his eyes and openly share those observations with others.

6. A Year in Normandie (detail), 2020-21, Collection of the artist © David Hockney
Revise on the title (as of 14 July) A Year in Normandie 2020-21 → A Year in Normandie

INFORMATIONExhibition Period: Saturday, 15 July 2023 - Sunday, 5 November 2023

Closed: Mondays (except 17 Jul., 18 Sep., 9 Oct.) and 18 Jul., 19 Sep., 10 Oct.

Opening Hours: 10 AM - 6PM (Tickets available until 30 minutes before closing.)

Venue: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Exhibition Gallery 1F/3F

Admission:
Adults: 2,300 yen / University & college students and over 65 years old: 1,600 yen /High school & junior high school students: 1,000 yen /Elementary school students and younger: freehttps://www.mot-art-museum.jp/hockney
Follow us ＠hockney2023-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Organized by Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo operated by Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture,
The Yomiuri Shimbun
With the special sponsorship of CANON INC.
With the sponsorship of Dai Nippon Printing (DNP), Sompo Holdings, Inc.
Supported by Japan Airlines Co., Ltd., YAMATO TRANSPORT CO., LTD., J-WAVE
Grant support by the British Council
CONTACTPR Office of DAVID HOCKNEY PRESS OFFICE (Kyodo-PR) / Rep. Mitsui
Email: david.hockney2023@kyodo-pr.co.jp / TEL: +81-3-6264-2382