Ever since getting a digital painting tablet a few Christmases ago, I have been a huge fan of digital drawing. Despite my initial skepticism that a 5 x 8″, 3 x 6″ digital “canvas” could function as the real thing, I have discovered that the little devices are actually perfectly suited to random acts of creation, and, much like the back of a cocktail napkin, are handy, unobtrusive and invite scribbles of spontaneous inspiration.
And, when used with Adobe’s or Corel’s painting and drawing software, digital tablets actually allow precision and colour effects that rival those you’d get from a great set of paints and brushes. All of which is why I expected that David Hockney’s Fresh Flowers: Drawings on the iPhone and iPad exhibit, which showcases Hockney’s foray into the digital drawing medium, would present a genius new take on Hockney’s famous pop still lifes and landscapes.
Fresh Flowers, on at the Royal Ontario Museum’s Institute for Contemporary Culture, showcases about 200 of Hockney’s digital drawings, all of which were created using the iPhone and iPad “Brushes” application, and are displayed on numerous iPads and iPods at the exhibit. Hockney, now in his 70s, is well known for his experimentation with new technologies: he was one of the first pop artists to pioneer the oversized photo collage, or “joiner,” comprising a large number of Polaroid snapshots of the same subject shot at different angles. Hockney allegedly fell in love with drawing on Apple gadgets in 2008, in part because of the ability to email his drawings immediately to his friends.
But, for me, Fresh Flowers showcases neither Hockney’s best work, nor the best of what the digital drawing medium has to offer. While the drawings in Fresh Flowers are certainly characterized by the vivid pop-out colour schemes that characterize most of Hockney’s works, his subjects — ranging from still lifes of flowers and furniture to portraits and landscapes — lie flat and have the general unsatisfying look of an unfinished product. A few large-scale projections effectively deconstruct some of Hockney’s drawings by replaying his creative process in slow motion, line by line, shade by shade.
For the most part, however, the exhibit, and maybe the works themselves, fail to showcase the capabilities and uniqueness of the digital drawing medium. For one, drawing aside, it is difficult to appreciate the scale, mood or texture of a Hockney landscape by squinting at an iPod screen.
Fresh Flowers is also a strangely faceless collection of works, as none of the drawings on display are labeled; there is almost nothing of Hockmey’s purpose or vision, aside from a stand-alone 56-page essay by the artist, buried somewhere at the ROM store. Granted, the exhibit makes an effort to showcase the wide-reaching potential of the digital medium through the work of one of Britain’s most prolific visual artists. However, I have to agree with Hockney’s own candid assessment of the exhibit, which was originally initiated for the Fondation Pierre Bergé / Yves Saint Laurent in Paris: “It’s there, what it is. I’m not claiming this is the best of David Hockney or anything…”
What: David Hockney’s Fresh Flowers: Drawings on the iPhone and iPad
Where: Royal Ontario Museum’s Institute for Contemporary Culture
When: On until January 1, 2012
Tickets: Visit the ROM website
Maria Gergin is a Toronto articling student. Her column, Leisure Aid, appears every other Friday here at lawandstyle.ca
Image: ROM / David Hockney