Paris (AFP)
"My joy comes from the way I look at the world", told AFP British artist David Hockney, 84, one of the most highly regarded living painters in the world, who is exhibiting his latest work in Paris, a ode to life and the four seasons in Normandy.
"Start on the left", advises the famous octogenarian, with the eternal cap and the sparkling gaze of mischief behind his round glasses with yellow frames.
He has just discovered in its entirety the result of his work, "A year in Normandie" (Normandy in French in the title), exhibited at the large gallery of the Musée de l'Orangerie from October 13 to February 14, 2022, a stone's throw away. of Claude Monet's Water Lilies, which is dear to him.
Norman winter, spring, summer and autumn, transfigured by successive layers of drawings "painted" on i-pad and printed by the pioneer of pop art, illuminate the place, throughout a frieze of 91 meters long by one meter high.
An explosion of bright colors and a quasi-sensory experience where we perceive the scent of apple and cherry blossoms, green pastures after the rain, the morning dew and the nobility of the snowy countryside, far from the grayness interior of the successive confinements decreed because of the Covid, during which he explains having painted it.
"Nature is the source of everything! My joy? It comes from the way I look at the world. It is magnificent but you have to know how to look with attention and with clear ideas. And for that, you have to get rid of everything that is keeps us from looking, ”adds Mr. Hockney, wearing a tailored suit in delicate shades of green, orange and purple, over a white shirt and red tie.
David Hockney poses at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris on October 7, 2021 Thomas COEX AFP
- Leaving London -
He explains that he chose Normandy where he took up residence in 2019, "just after finishing a stained glass window for Queen Elisabeth II at Westminster Abbey" to "leave London" and its frenzy, three years after the Brexit referendum .
He rejoices: "when the confinement arrived in March (2020), it didn't bother me at all. There were just three of us, in an isolated place, and I was able to work every day, in peace for almost a year. It was good, I could decide when I went to bed what I would do the next day, "he says.
Before that, he plans to paint once again "the arrival of spring", as he did in his native region, Yorkshire, in 2011. "In Normandy there are more flowers of fruit trees. ..I made 220 tables, all on i-pad and it did me a lot of good! ”, He says.
David Hockney poses at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris on October 7, 2021 Thomas COEX AFP
An intense production, nourished "with ideas" in front of "a marvelous sunset on the Seine having the clarity of Van Gogh" or "the Bayeux tapestry", relating the conquest of William the conqueror, which "carries in it a time long creation ".
In "Amsterdam also for the exhibition + Les Joies de la Nature +" showing the influence of Vincent Van Gogh on David Hockney.
"Spring was ending, so I decided to postpone until 2020. When the confinement arrived, they canceled the Olympic Games but we cannot cancel the spring, it continues its life without us! It is the renewal par excellence , one of the most beautiful things in Northern Europe. The one in 2020 has been wonderful and I hope a lot of people were able to observe it anyway. "
- Capture the moment -
In its monumental frieze, spring is evoked "closer to the flowers of fruit trees and their leaves, at their birth, then by stepping back at the arrival of summer with the trees in their entirety", explains M Hockney.
"Then comes autumn and the leaves fall, then finally winter, with a little snow".
He was "waiting for her".
She arrived in January 2021.
That day, he said, "the light did not appear until 8:30 am; around 9:15 am I thought I was going to stay in bed but suddenly it started to snow and I think I captured this instant. It lasted about 35 minutes with snow on the branches; in the afternoon everything had melted ".
Her digital technique "offers a 360-degree view around her house", comments Cécile Debray, director of the Orangerie.
"It is a privileged moment of concentration on creation with a very abstract, pixelated digital touch, which amplifies the realistic character of the image. At 84, he is undoubtedly one of the most innovative painters. He solves what Monet was desperately looking for: the instant capture of a pattern ".
© 2021 AFP