Over-hyped Hockney ?

The David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy has had loads of media attention, with television and radio interviews, articles in newspapers and magazines and so is attracting huge crowds. Far more than the last RA exhibition the Degas Ballet paintings and drawings. On our visit we were overwhelmed by the crowds streaming in. However was it really worth it or has it been blown up out of all proportions ? The first room that you entered was filled with some of his first attempts at Yorkshire landscapes which were the real focus of the exhibition. These struck me by the crudity of the painting, and the unevenness of the compositions. Looked at as semi- abstract paintings they came over quite well, but as landscapes they were very crude. We then moved onto a short retrospective of his earlier paintings, from his very early Yorkshire paintings, though some of his more abstract paintings done in California and his paintings of the Grand Canyon. The violent colours of the Grand Canyon paintings came as a bit of a shock, but I gather that the bright light out there does give this effect. Again I found the actual painting rather crude. The next room was filled with paintings done from memory of Yorkshire, but painted in California. Again we had the over bright colours and some rather strange compositions which to me showed the influences of the abstract painters he mixed with in the US. This was followed by his first paintings done in Yorkshire. One wall showed his experiments with watercolour. These were first shown at a small exhibition in London a few years ago, and I was not at all impressed by them then, and even less now. The standard was in my opinion that of a not terribly talented amateur. However the oils done roughly at the same time were very much better, with better composition and use of colour, though still rather crudely painted. The next few rooms were filled with some of his series paintings, partly done live and partly in his studio. To me these showed a dramatic improvement. The influence of Monet and Van Gogh were fairly obvious, but overall I found a lot of these paintings done on multiple canvases the best paintings in the show, with great atmosphere, and composition. However I could not see much influence of Constable, except in his choice of subjects. The paintings were complimented by some superb charcoal drawings, which he used as models for the paintings. these showed off his great skills as a draughtsman. These rooms were well worth going to see, Another room was dedicated to Hockney's takes on a Claude Lorrain painting "The Sermon on the Mount". These were interesting variations done in all sorts of styles, but did not appeal to me very much. Then we came to the largest room. This was filled at one end by the huge "Arrival of Spring in Woldgate done on 52 canvases. A really monumental painting. The rest of the room was filled with prints taken from the paintings done by Hockney on his iPad. These I found interesting, but it would have been nice to see the actual iPad paintings. I think Hockney is to be congratulated on his interest and experiments with the latest in technology. It made me think that I would not mind having a go at this myself. There were also two rooms dedicated to Hockney's experiments with digital film technology, but I must admit that I could not get up much enthusiasm for them. Finally on the way out, we saw some of the work that he did in 2011 , both on his iPad and in oils. i much preferred the oils. Is Hockney the greatest living British figurative painter ? I do not think so. he is an exceptionally good painter, and is to be admired for the way he is using new technology, As a regular attendee at shows at the Mall Gallery and other shows of modern British figurative art I feel that there are many other very good British figurative painters, some of whom excel Hockney in technical skill and are equally imaginative. However I wonder if they could fill the Royal Academy with such a show. Though certainly over-hyped I felt the show was well worth going to see. Incidentally I have never seen the shop so busy, so obviously the punters liked the show. :-D