8 August – 27 October 2024
Room 46
Admission free
‘I must tell you that I love the collection of the National Gallery’.
(David Hockney in a letter dated 5 March 1979 to the then Director of the National Gallery, Michael Levey)
Two masterpieces by David Hockney (born 1937) that feature reproductions of Piero della Francesca’s The Baptism of Christ (probably about 1437–45) will go on display at the National Gallery alongside the original Renaissance painting from 8 August until 27 October 2024.
This focused exhibition will explore the figurative painter David Hockney’s lifelong association with the National Gallery and passionate interest in its collection in general and with the 15th-century Italian painter Piero della Francesca (1415/20–1492) in particular. Indeed, on one occasion, Hockney confessed of 'The Baptism of Christ', ‘I'd love to have that Della Francesca just so I could look at it every day for an hour.’
In Hockney’s 'My Parents' (1977), completed after two earlier attempts at painting this double portrait of Kenneth and Laura Hockney, a reproduction of Piero’s 'The Baptism of Christ' is reflected in a mirror on a trolley behind the sitters. 'Looking at Pictures on a Screen' (1977), depicts Hockney’s close friend Henry Geldzahler, the Belgian-born American curator of 20th-century art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, peering at a folding screen in the artist’s studio on which are stuck four posters of favourite National Gallery pictures including 'The Baptism of Christ'.
The exhibition will encourage visitors to draw comparisons between the 15th-century painting by Piero and the two paintings by Hockney, and to promote ‘slow looking’, an activity that, in Hockney’s opinion, is vital in letting people rediscover just how beautiful the world around them is.
It will also be an opportunity for the Gallery to celebrate 200 years of working with contemporary artists and to reinforce its continuing role in bringing artists, paintings and publics into a fruitful three-way dialogue, a key element of the celebrations to mark the Gallery’s Bicentenary.
Piero was the first artist to write a treatise on perspective 'De prospectiva pingendi' – that is, creating an illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface. In 'The Baptism of Christ', Piero’s earliest surviving painting, he has used mathematical principles to order his design, creating a visually harmonious and timeless image. Yet it is set within a landscape familiar to its original viewers in central Italy, thereby uniting them personally with this momentous episode from the New Testament, where earth and heaven conjoin at Christ’s baptism and his divine nature is announced from heaven.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated publication that will include an in-depth interview with David Hockney. Other chapters will examine the relationship that has existed between practising artists and the National Gallery over two centuries, highlighting how its paintings, especially Piero’s 'The Baptism of Christ', have provided a continued source of inspiration for artists. It will also consider how the Gallery’s pioneering exhibition series, 'The Artist’s Eye', in which Hockney participated in 1981 with 'Looking at Pictures on a Screen', allowed artists to act as curators and share pictures in new ways with broad audiences.
David Hockney, says ‘I didn’t visit London until I was 18 years old. The National Gallery was just there. They didn’t do exhibitions in those days. But I often went there as a student. I was always looking at Fra Angelico, Piero, Vermeer and Van Gogh. On those early visits I remember being affected by Piero’s 'The Baptism of Christ', it was marvellous. I understand what reproductions do. They've enriched my life a great deal, and I know a lot of things from looking at them. On the other hand, when you see the real paintings it is a different experience.’
Dr Susanna Avery-Quash, Lead Curator, says ‘As part of the Bicentenary celebrations, this focus display draws attention to the powerful if hidden story of the National Gallery as a catalyst in the creative life of the nation through its encouragement of contemporary artists to draw inspiration from its collection. David Hockney has been a lifelong devotee of the Gallery as this ‘in-conversation’ between two of his pictures and 'The Baptism of Christ' by Piero attests. We invite visitors to join in this visual conversation, to feast their eyes and be reminded of the pleasures and benefits to be derived from careful looking.’
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The H J Hyams Exhibition Programme
Supported by The Capricorn Foundation
Exhibition supported by
Press view: Tuesday 6 August 2024
With a career spanning over six decades, David Hockney OM CH RA (born 1937), is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century. From painting, drawing, printmaking, set design, and photography to media ranging from fax machines to iPads, Hockney continues to demonstrate an abiding interest in pushing the boundaries of creative expression.
Born in Bradford, Hockney studied at Bradford School of Art (1953‒7) and the Royal College of Art in London, graduating as a gold medal winner in 1962. In 1964, the artist moved to Los Angeles where he was inspired to paint the landscape and swimming pools of Southern California. In addition to painting, drawing, and printmaking, Hockney spent the next few decades creating composite Polaroid pictures, photo collages, and a series of international opera stage designs.
In 2001, Hockney received worldwide recognition for publishing 'Secret Knowledge', revealing his findings in the use of optics and the camera lucida by the Old Masters. Hockney eventually returned to his native Yorkshire where he focused on creating multi-canvas landscapes en plein air. Transitioning from landscapes to portraits in an astonishing output of work that culminated in 'David Hockney: A Bigger Picture' exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2011 - a fitting tribute to the artist’s range and dexterity on his 75th birthday.
Exhibitions throughout Europe, the UK, Asia, and the US have documented the artist’s prolific output and embrace of new technology to draw and paint with the iPhone and iPad. During the pandemic, the artist created a vibrant scrolling view of a year in Normandy, a celebration of the world to delight and inspire us, in his words, to ‘Love Life.’ Hockney’s drive to create and explore the challenges of perspective and depiction remains unabated. ‘When I’m in the studio working,’ he declared at the age of 80, ‘I feel like I’m 30.’
Piero is one of the most admired 15th-century Italian painters. The cool colour palette and geometrical compositions contribute to the refined and meditative nature of his works.
Piero was born in Borgo Sansepolcro, Tuscany. He worked in various central Italian towns, but retained links with Sansepolcro, visible in the background of The Baptism of Christ. The distinctive rolling hills are depicted in a number of his works, such as The Nativity. We know nothing of Piero’s training, and the chronology of his works is hard to establish as many are lost. By 1439 he was working in Florence with Domenico Veneziano, whose treatment of space, like that of Paolo Uccello, must have influenced him.
Piero was also a mathematical theorist. This interest is reflected in the clearly defined volume of the figures and accurate perspective in his works. It is balanced by a naturalism that derived from Netherlandish art. His patrons were among the most powerful men in Italy: the Duke of Urbino, Sigismund Malatesta in Rimini, and Pope Nicholas V in Rome. According to tradition, Piero taught Signorelli. Vasari says he became blind in old age. He was buried in Sansepolcro.
The National Gallery is one of the greatest art galleries in the world. Founded by Parliament in 1824, the Gallery houses the nation’s collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the late 13th to the early 20th century. The collection includes works by Artemisia Gentileschi, Bellini, Cezanne, Degas, Leonardo, Monet, Raphael, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rubens, Titian, Turner, Van Dyck, Van Gogh and Velázquez. The Gallery’s key objectives are to care for and enhance the collection and provide the best possible access to visitors. Admission free.
On 10 May 2024 the National Gallery celebrated its 200th anniversary, and began its Bicentenary celebration, a year-long festival of art, creativity and imagination, marking two centuries of bringing people and paintings together.
Riverstone provides exceptional later living for people over 65 with residences across London and is proud to support the 'Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look' exhibition. Arts and culture are at the centre of our vibrant communities, with the National Gallery being just one of many cultural landmarks we support.
X12252
David Hockney (born 1937)
'Looking at Pictures on a Screen', 1977
Oil on canvas, 188 x 188 cm
Private collection
© David Hockney
NG665
Piero della Francesca
'The Baptism of Christ', probably about 1437–45
Egg tempera on wood, 167 × 116 cm
© The National Gallery, London
X12251
David Hockney (born 1937)
'My Parents', 1977
Oil on canvas, 182.9 × 182.9 cm
Tate, purchased 1981
© David Hockney. Photo: Tate, London
Title: 'Hockney and Piero. A Longer Look'
Authors: Susanna Avery-Quash with contributions by Martin Gayford, David Hockney and Sacha Llewellyn
112 pages, 73 illustrations, 230 x 270 mm, portrait
Paperback with flaps: £16.99, special Gallery price: £14.95
Published by National Gallery Global Ltd. Distributed by Yale University Press
Also on display at the National Gallery at the same time:
The Last Caravaggio (18 April - 21 July 2024)
Discover Degas and Miss La La (6 June – 1 September 2024)
Discover Constable and the Hay Wain (17 October 2024 – 2 February 2025)
National Gallery Press Office on 020 7747 2865 or email press.external@nationalgallery.org.uk
Publicity images can be obtained from https://press.nationalgallery.org.uk/