At the Fondation Louis Vuitton, David Hockney is not merely exhibited—he reigns. And for a brief Parisian moment, we are all his willing subjects. David Hockney has never been one to shy away from scale—be it canvas, concept, or cultural footprint. But in “David Hockney 25” at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the British artist outdoes himself, orchestrating an expansive visual symphony that spans seven decades and over 400 works. This isn’t just an exhibition—it’s an invitation to wander through the kaleidoscopic interior of Hockney’s mind.

Open through August 31, 2025, the show is as much a retrospective as it is a declaration of vitality.

Yes, I am still watching, still dreaming, still documenting the world—only now, with my finger on an iPad screen.

– As if to say.

From Splash to Scroll: A Journey Across Mediums

The exhibition begins as it should—with the classics. That crystalline blue of A Bigger Splash (1967), the emotional choreography of Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1972)—works that bottled the essence of California cool and filtered it through British wit. They shimmer not only with sunlight but with precision, restraint, and something Hockney rarely gets enough credit for: a profound melancholy cloaked in glamour.

Yet as the show progresses, the eye adjusts. These earlier works, so canonical, are merely prelude. The real heartbeat of “David Hockney 25” lies in his more recent output—his digital landscapes, iPad portraits, and theatrical immersions.

The Normandy Years: Seasons on a Screen

If the Yorkshire landscapes of the early 2000s reintroduced Hockney as a plein air poet, then his Normandy works reveal him as a techno-bard, capturing time’s passage not with brush but with pixel.

In Gallery 5, the 220 for 2020 series spreads like a pastoral tapestry across the walls, depicting the slow turn of the seasons with obsessive dailiness. What once required paint now requires patience and screen sensitivity. The trees bloom, wilt, return. The sun shifts. The world moves, and Hockney, in his eighth decade, keeps pace with youthful zeal.

The iPad becomes not a novelty, but a new kind of brush. In the Fondation’s hands, even the medium’s presentation is provocative. Framed iPad portraits—of friends, lovers, muses—speak to a paradox: digital work, yet hauntingly traditional. Classical even. Here is a technology that, in Hockney’s hands, yearns for the tactile.

Stagecraft and Spectacle: Hockney’s Theater of the Mind

The upper floors erupt in saturated color, immersive light, and spatial play—Hockney as scenographer, pulling from his decades of work in opera and ballet.

In Gallery 10, he revisits his stage sets in a “polyphonic” collaboration with 59 Studio. The room pulses with light and layered perspectives, part cubist playground, part dreamscape. Another chamber becomes a dance hall, echoing Hockney’s home, where musicians and dancers routinely animate the walls. It’s not spectacle for its own sake—it’s a gesture of hospitality. The viewer is no longer just an observer, but a guest.

The Painter as Philosopher

To close, the Fondation unveils Hockney’s latest canvases—introspective, enigmatic pieces nodding to Edvard Munch and William Blake. These works feel less like statements and more like questions. What is seeing? What is recording? What is the point of beauty in a world that often forgets it?

Hockney’s voice—humorous, heartfelt, and wholly undimmed—echoes through the galleries.

Some of the very last paintings I’m working on now will be included in it and I think it’s going to be very good.

– He says.

It’s better than good. It’s sublime.

Why This Exhibition Matters Now

“David Hockney 25” is not just a career survey. It is a defiant, joyous affirmation of relevance. At a time when many artists his age retreat or repeat, Hockney reinvents. He greets new technologies not with suspicion, but with glee. He doesn’t mourn lost time—he paints it.

In this sprawling Parisian tribute, one feels not nostalgia, but urgency. The rooms do not look backward; they dare forward. And for those wandering their way through Hockney’s world, the effect is nothing short of electric.

Whether you’re a devotee of Hockney’s poolside cool or a newcomer drawn by curiosity, “David Hockney 25” offers a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with a mind in constant bloom.

Catch it before it fades—through August 31, 2025, at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris.