Travel Tip: Art and Archaeology in Spain
David Hockney: A Bigger Picture

First seen earlier this season at The Royal Academy of Arts in London, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents the first major exhibition in Spain to showcase David Hockney’s landscape work. Vivid paintings inspired by the Yorkshire countryside, many exhibited here for the first time, are shown alongside related drawings and digital video. Over 150 works are on display on the Bilbao Museum’s second floor, the majority of which have been created in the last eight years. The exhibition also includes a selection of works dating as far back as 1956, which places the recent work in the context of Hockney’s extended exploration of and fascination with landscape. Past works include Rocky Mountains and Tired Indians, 1965 (The National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh), Garrowby Hill , 1998 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) and A Closer Grand Canyon, 1998 (Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek). Hockney’s exploration of the depiction of space is traced from work dating to his time as a student, through his photocollages of the 1980s and the Grand Canyon paintings of the late 1990s, to the recent paintings of East Yorkshire, frequently made en plein air .

The exhibition also shows David Hockney's interest in new technologies throughout his career: from his early use of the Polaroid camera, his innovative incorporation of the color copier and use of the iPhone and iPad; in addition, this interest is especially evident in a number of new films produced with up to 18 cameras, which are presented on multiple screens.