David Hockney’s blue swimming pools and Yorkshire landscapes will return to the walls of London’s Lightroom for one night only, in a special event paying tribute to the late artist.
The immersive exhibition will be re-staged tonight (9 July) at the request of the late artist’s studio and family, on what would have been his 89th birthday. Proceeds from ticket sales donated to the Royal Drawing School, a charity of which Hockney was an avid supporter.
Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away), which originally opened in February 2023, saw Hockney’s vast body of work projected across the walls of Lightroom, accompanied by his own reflective narration. Combining landscape, portraiture and his later embrace of iPad drawings, the exhibition transformed the gallery into an immersive journey through his life and works, taking visitors from Los Angeles to Yorkshire to Normandy.
In a five-star review, The Independent’s art critic Mark Hudson wrote that the show was a display of “the unquenchable energy and enthusiasm that powers his art forward”. In an interview leading up to its opening, Hockney called the hi-tech exhibition “a sort of self-portrait among other things”.
A towering figure in modern British art, Hockney died peacefully at his home in June at the age of 88. Lightroom CEO Robert Slaney said the event would offer his fans a “moment of reflection”.
“It’s a beautiful reflection on who he was as a person,” Slaney told The Independent. “You hear his voice throughout and so there is a real connection with him. It feels to me that in this show, David is right there with us, guiding us. It’s very personal.”
Slaney spent three years working closely on the show with Hockney, of which he has “infinite fond memories”. Their working relationship intensified in the months that Hockney lived in London, having relocated his studio from Yorkshire in the winter of 2022 in preparation for the show.
“He was there with us in the building everyday for about three months even when the venue was literally a building site – it was absolute chaos but he’d be there in his hard hat,” Slaney says.
“We found him some heaters and had lots of tea going. It was a freezing cold building site but he didn’t let that get in the way. He was seemingly unfussed about that side of things. He was relentless about his process and seeing things and seeing them again.”
Of the many lessons he took from Hockney, Slaney said the greatest was his “fascinating and beautiful” way of looking at the world. “All of David’s phrases that feature in the show – ‘Collaboration means compromise’ and ‘Love life’ – seem like short, pithy statements, but they mean so much. You can draw an awful lot from it.”
“It felt nice that we could all have a moment on a summer’s evening to watch the show and reflect on everything we learnt from David,” says Slaney.
The brief return of the Bigger & Closer precedes the Tate’s two major David Hockney shows next year coinciding with what would have been his 90th birthday. In the summer, Tate Modern will stage a multimedia installation in the Turbine Hall followed by a career-spanning exhibition at Tate Britain in the autumn.
The special showings will take place on Thursday 9 July from 7pm. Tickets are £25 with proceeds going to the Royal Drawing School. Tickets available here.
