The triumph of David Hockney and painting – on the exhibition “Hockney 25”
By Alain Quemin
Consecrated to the last quarter of a century of David Hockney’s work, the retrospective “Hockney 25” is the demonstration that at 87, the British painter was able to remain elusive. A great panorama made up of echoes with all his work, the journey accounts for the diversity of techniques in which he tried, as well as the variety of his subjects.
David Hockney is a singular artist in that, for a long time, he manages to combine – the fact is rare enough to be underlined – extreme popularity with the general public with the esteem of the best art specialists. It is therefore completely logical that the Louis Vuitton Foundation, a customary public presentations, devotes its spring exhibition to this superstar of painting.
The exhibitions of the Louis Vuitton Foundation would be impossible without the considerable means available to this institution, which are in particular financial, based on the luxury group LVMH. On occasion, this parentage also gives weight diplomatic means.
It thus made it possible to present in France the largest collections of modern art, in particular impressionist and postimpressionists, which were formed and which are kept in Russia. The both financial and diplomatic means of the LVMH group made it possible to carry out properly historical exhibitions, such as those devoted to Russian collectors Morozov and, even more, Chtchoukine. Where, to discover the main works brought together by the latter, today you have to go, in Russia, in two cities, Moscow and Saint Petersburg, the Foundation has succeeded in the unpublished feat-and which will undoubtedly never be renewed-, to bring together all the works simultaneously in its walls. Suffice to say that it was a historical presentation.
It is therefore hardly surprising that the two previous exhibitions each have exceeded one million visitors. The Chtchoukine collection was seen by 1.205,000 visitor/SE.S between October 2016 and March 2017. As for the Morozov collection, which was presented from September 2021 to April 2022, it attracted 1,250,000 people. These two events are characterized by a record for the number of visitor/SE in France for painting exhibitions. They were only exceeded by the Tutankhamon exhibition
Alain Quemin
Sociologist, professor of art sociology, researcher at the Gemass (Sorbonne University), senior member of the University Institute of France
