Hockney exhibition explores decades-long career
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
The exhibit includes more than 200 works spanning six decades. Photo: Meira Gebel/Axios
Portlanders don't have to fly to New York, London or Los Angeles to immerse themselves in David Hockney's vibrant world of poolside turquoise blues, explosive fuchsia skies and electric green landscapes.
The big picture: A sweeping, six-decade exhibition featuring more than 200 works by Hockney is on view at the newly renovated Portland Art Museum and explores how he embraced reinvention throughout his career.
- From early etchings to his iconic swimming pool series, blooming British gardens and intimate portraits of friends, the show traces how Hockney constantly reimagined space and feeling.
Zoom in: It's the largest North American survey of Hockney's work to date and plays up his fascination with perspective and technology.
- The galleries are painted vermilion red and deep cobalt to create an immersive experience with sightlines and framed windows that let visitors glimpse works in neighboring rooms — subtly shifting their vantage point as they move through the exhibit.
- His photographic collages, which collapse multiple viewpoints into a single image, and iPad drawings — along with a multi-screen video of a snowy back road filmed from cameras mounted on a Jeep — show how he's always been an early adopter.
Between the lines: The works come from the expansive collection of Portland developer and philanthropist Jordan Schnitzer, who purchased his first Hockney print (from the Blue Guitar series) early in his career.
- At a news conference, Schnitzer said he "burst into tears" when he saw the exhibit for the first time, adding that it could have been at the Tate or Whitney with how well it was executed.
- "This sets a new standard for the museum here," he said.
If you go: "David Hockney: Works from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation" runs through July 26 and will include multiple events like curator talks and drawing workshops.