David Hockney 25, hosted at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, marks a landmark celebration of one of the most influential and versatile artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The exhibition brings together some 400 works across multiple decades, inviting visitors to trace the arc of Hockney's artistic evolution, from his early experiments at the Royal College of Art to his digital innovations in recent years.
This exhibition is part of the Fondation's 2025 programme, highlighting Hockney's enduring curiosity, reinvention, and radical embrace of new technologies, formats, and ways of seeing.
Highlights of the Exhibition.
- Early Works and RCA Period
Visitors are greeted with paintings and drawings from Hockney's formative years in London, where he disrupted convention with coded queer narratives and expressive linework.
- Los Angeles and the Pool Years
Some of Hockney's most iconic imagery; swimming pools, sun-drenched architecture, and friends lounging in mid century homes fill the walls. A Bigger Splash (1967), with its crisp geometry and enigmatic burst of water, remains a cornerstone.
- Photographic Joiners and Experiments with Space
Works such as Pearblossom Hwy., 11-18th April 1986, #2 reflect Hockney's rejection of
single-point perspective and embrace of collage-like "joiners" that convey time and movement.
- Reverse Perspective and A Bigger Card Players
The monumental A Bigger Card Players exemplifies Hockney's interest in reverse perspective and layered viewpoints. Inspired by Cézanne and Ingres, it challenges how we look, and where we stand in relation to an image.
- Digital Landscapes and Seasonal Observation
Largescale iPad drawings from The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, 2011 and the Normandy seriesoffer immersive bursts of colour and rhythmic brushwork. These works show Hockney's use of digital media not as gimmick, but as genuine extension of his observational practice.
- Panoramas and Immersive Formats
The vast frieze A Year in Normandie, stretching over 90 metres, occupies an entire gallery space. It recalls the Bayeux Tapestry in its narrative rhythm and painterly detail, merging historical reference with digital execution.
Critical Reception
The exhibition has received enthusiastic acclaim across Europe's leading art press:
"This is the biggest exhibition of Hockney's work ever staged... It's a joy to see those 1970s Los Angeles swimming pools again." - The Art Newspaper
"It is a country for old men, the latest, brightest, riotously enjoyable, largest ever incarnation of Hockneyland... this elegiac, flamboyant exhibition of Hockney picked greatest hits is likely the last inhis lifetime." - The Guardian
"With more than 100 works on display, this is a spectacular reminder of Hockney's range and restlessness - from etchings to iPads, opera sets to Yorkshire hedgerows." - Le Figaro
A Celebration of Innovation
Hockney has always moved restlessly between techniques and tools; etching, lithography, Polaroids, faxes, iPads, and even 3D spaces. David Hockney 25 underscores this boundary breaking approach. Far from a linear retrospective, the exhibition threads together parallel obsessions: space, time, light, and the act of looking. In doing so, it demonstrates how Hockney, now in his 80s, continues to reinvent the practice of image making with the zeal of an artist just beginning.
Visitor Information
- Location: Fondation Louis Vuitton, Bois de Boulogne, Paris
- Dates: Spring-Summer 2025 (check the FLV website for exact dates)
- Highlights on view:- A Bigger Splash
- Pearblossom Hwy.
- A Bigger Card Players
- The Four Seasons (video installation)
- The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, 2011
- A Year in Normandie
- The Moon Room
You can get tickets on the door but it's advisable to purchase in advance. You can purchase the tickets from the LV Foundation website here; https://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/en/events/david-hockney-25