David Hockney works giving ‘sense of hope and promise’ to go on display

More than 100 David Hockney works which the artist created in just one season – this spring – will go on display.

The painter, 83, produced images which are “dense, rich and an extraordinary riot of colour” on his iPad.

His trip to Normandy coincided with the beginning of the pandemic and Hockney ended up being “along with the rest of Europe and much of the world, in a state of lockdown”.

Some 116 iPad prints capturing spring will go on show for the first time at the Royal Academy next year.

Curator Edith Devaney told the PA news agency the works are “very rich and vibrant and look just like his paintings”.

She added of the 116 works: “He is prolific and (this time he was) perhaps slightly more prolific. He’s endlessly curious about everything.”

There is “that sense of hope and promise and rebirth,” she added of the works.

Despite being in his 80s, Hockney worked “unbelievably quickly” and “was fascinated by it and so engaged intellectually by it”, she said.

“The idea of presenting this to our visitors exactly a year after we all went through this shared experience of lockdown feels very compelling.”

The images “reinforce the idea that nature will carry on. You can stop the world but you can’t stop spring from happening, which is very much the message from David’s work.

“It’s a reminder to just put your head up and look outside and there is this extraordinary performance that’s taking place every year.”

David Hockney: The Arrival Of Spring, Normandy, 2020 runs at the Royal Academy from March 27 to August 22 next year.