30TH JANUARY 2021, THE FIRST ONE

  • 30TH JANUARY 2021, THE FIRST ONE, 2021, David Hockney
    30TH JANUARY 2021, THE FIRST ONE, 2021
    iPad painting printed on paper
    89 x 63.5 cm, Edition of 50
    ©David Hockney
     
    The First One marks a key moment early in Hockney’s Normandy still life studies. Working directly on the iPad, he captures a simple vase of flowers with swift, precise gestures, allowing the digital medium to retain the freshness of drawing from life. The deep brown background isolates the bouquet, while the checked cloth beneath introduces rhythm and structure to the scene.
     
    This work reflects Hockney’s interest in how technology can revitalise traditional subjects. The immediacy of the digital mark gives the arrangement an energy that avoids the overly polished. It stands as an introduction to a period in which Hockney used new tools to explore light, colour and the everyday with renewed focus.
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  • "I prefer living in colour." 

     

    - David Hockney

    30TH  January 2021, The First One, demonstrates how Hockney uses the iPad to rethink the language of still life. Drawing directly on the screen allows him to work with speed and clarity, translating the immediacy of looking into crisp marks and saturated colour. The vase and flowers are rendered with a lightness that avoids the weight of traditional media, while the printed scale gives the digital image a physical presence. It offers a clear example of how Hockney’s digital practice brings familiar subjects into a new visual vocabulary shaped by contemporary tools.