David Hockney is coming to Paris, and he’s bringing the whole cosmos of his art with him. This April, the Fondation Louis Vuitton will host the biggest Hockney exhibition ever—an 11-room, 400-piece odyssey spanning seven decades of one of the most kaleidoscopic careers in modern art. The title? David Hockney, 25. The ambition? Nothing less than total immersion.
At 87, Hockney remains as prolific and cheeky as ever.
This exhibition means an enormous amount because it is the largest exhibition I’ve ever had.
– he said, with a sprinkle of Yorkshire humility.
David Hockney, understatement artist.
A Tour Through Time, Tech, and Touch
Curated by the ever-daring Sir Norman Rosenthal, with Hockney and his partner Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima, the show traces Hockney’s trailblazing journey from Yorkshire fields to Californian pools to his latest Normandy experiments. This isn’t just a greatest-hits reel; it’s a deep dive into the artist’s restless mind.
Expect the iconic: A Bigger Splash (1967), where the splash freezes time, and Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1972), a meditation on intimacy and distance that once shattered records as the priciest artwork by a living artist. (A cool $90.3 million, in case you forgot.)
But the real magic happens in the last 25 years of his career, a time when most artists might settle into comfort zones, but Hockney? He went full wizard mode. From iPad paintings of Normandy lockdown landscapes to works like After Munch: Less is Known than People Think (2023) and After Blake: Less is Known than People Think (2024), Hockney’s recent output fuses digital audacity with classical reverence.
These works will culminate in the final room, crowned by a fresh self-portrait—a genre Hockney revisits like a man perpetually curious about his own reflection.
Hockney: The Artist as Time Traveler
Hockney’s genius lies in his ability to simultaneously honor tradition and obliterate it. Whether using oil paint, iPads, or video installations, he invites you to see the world as he does: a carnival of color, a kaleidoscope of joy, and, above all, an unrelenting curiosity about the act of looking itself.
This isn’t just a retrospective; it’s a call to arms. Hockney’s work insists on the relevance of beauty in a world often too busy to notice. His Yorkshire landscapes glow with the drama of Turner, his iPad works hum with the joy of invention, and his pools shimmer with a kind of erotic mysticism.
Paris Is Ready; Are You?
There’s something poetic about Hockney taking over Paris, the city of light, with an exhibition that’s less about light itself and more about how it bends, refracts, and dances through the eye of a master. The Fondation Louis Vuitton will transform into a temple of Hockney’s vision, where digital screens and oil paints harmonize like Debussy and jazz.
With the first volume of his catalogue raisonné slated for 2026, this landmark exhibition feels like both a culmination and a beginning. Hockney, ever the optimist, isn’t done reimagining what art can be—or what it can do to us.
So, book your tickets, bring your curiosity, and prepare to be dazzled. Hockney himself would probably shrug and say, “It’ll be good.” But let me tell you—it’s going to be extraordinary.