In collaboration with the Gerrish Family Collection and the Gerrish Fine Art Gallery, London, the Kunsthaus Gmünd is presenting a rich selection of lithographs, etchings, screen prints, poster art and digital art by David Hockney in 2025. With over 120 works, the exhibition spans from the 1960s to the last decade and invites visitors for the first time in southern Austria to immerse themselves in the kaleidoscope of form, color and perspective of David Hockney, an artist who makes the ordinary extraordinary.
David Hockney (born 1937 in Bradford, England) is a draughtsman, painter, graphic artist, set designer and photographer. He was a leading member of the Pop Art movement in the 1960s and is now considered one of the most influential and well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. In 2018, Hockney's 1972 paintingPortrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) was sold at Christie's New York for 90 million US dollars, an auction result that catapulted the artist to the top of the list of the most expensive living artists.
David Hockney, Water pouring into swimming pool, Santa Monica, lithograph, 1964 | Gerrish Fine Art. David Hockney, 2025
Hockney is best known for his pool paintings of the 1960s, the sensitive portraits of his friends and family members, his unmistakable landscapes and his photographic collages. The artist always makes use of a broad spectrum of artistic possibilities and also incorporates new technical innovations into his work: for example, he has been working increasingly with iPads and iPhones for several years, painting digital landscapes and working closely with app programmers. David Hockney is driven by an almost insatiable thirst for knowledge, he explores the techniques of old masters and also takes on new technical challenges that have repeatedly changed his way of seeing and depicting over the course of his career.
Hockney's subjects are always people or places, although these change over the course of his career: while he tended to depict urban areas at the beginning of his career, he has concentrated on landscapes for around three decades. The constant repetition of the places depicted at different times of the day and year and in various weather conditions is significant in Hockney's depiction of the landscape: only repetition deepens the viewer's experience, a central component of Hockney's entire artistic practice.
May 25 - October 5, 2025
