David Hockney: The Arrival Of Spring
Raphael Hefti: On Core / Encore
11 October 2015–10 January 2016
Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles
35ter rue du Docteur Fanton
13200 Arles
France
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11am–6pm
T +33 (0)4 90 93 08 08
www.fondation-vincentvangogh-arles.org
The Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles highlights the resonance of Van Gogh’s oeuvre in contemporary art by means of temporary exhibitions and a wide-ranging schedule characterized by diversity and contemporaneity. For its fourth exhibition programme, the Fondation welcomes David Hockney and Raphael Hefti, both of whom are making a return to Arles, having exhibited respectively in 1985 at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie and on the occasion of the Fondation’s inauguration in 2014.
Born in 1937 in England, David Hockney is one of the leading figures in contemporary art. For many decades the artist has divided his time between the U.S. and Britain—namely between Los Angeles, where he has lived most recently since 2013, and his native Yorkshire, whose wooded countryside inspired the 12 drawings created on iPad (2011) and the 25 charcoal drawings (2013) presented at the Fondation. These two series testify to the constant curiosity, underlying Hockney’s oeuvre, about new inventions and about renewing the language of art. The exhibition is complemented by further works, including Vincent’s Chair and Pipe (1988), a painting whose vibrant colours testify to the artist’s admiration for Van Gogh.
The practice of the young Swiss artist Raphael Hefti (b. 1978) finds its point of departure in the investigation of the unrecognized potential of materials and industrial processes. The alteration of a sheet of metal or a pane of glass marks its point of arrival. Hefti thereby intervenes not only in technical processes, but also within industrial manufacturing plants, which become the laboratory for his research. In addition to The Violet Blue Green Yellow Orange Red House (2014), his permanent installation crowning the Fondation’s glazed extension, Hefti is exhibiting the results of other artistic experiments, including a forest of steel, copper, titanium and aluminium poles and a photogram in an extremely large format.
Exhibition curators: Gregory Evans and Bice Curiger for David Hockney; Bice Curiger for Raphael Hefti.
Press relations: Pierre Collet
collet [at] aec-imagine.fr / T+33 680 84 87 71
*(1) Raphael Hefti, The Violet Blue Green Yellow Orange Red House, 2014. 78 Luxar glass panels, polished stainless steel. © Raphael Hefti, Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles. Photo: Gunnar Meier. (2) Entrance and bookshop of the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles with Raphael Hefti’s permanent installation The Violet Blue Green Yellow Orange Red House, 2014. (3) David Hockney, The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven)–29 January. Edition 1 of 10. iPad drawing printed on four sheets of paper (118.1 x 88.9 cm each), mounted on four sheets of Dibond®, 236.2 x 177.8 cm overall. Collection of the artist. Photo: Richard Schmidt. (4) David Hockney, Woldgate, 15-16 May from The Arrival of Spring in 2013 (twenty thirteen). Charcoal on paper, 57.5 x 76.7 cm. Courtesy: Collection The David Hockney Foundation. Photo: Richard Schmidt. (5) Raphael Hefti, from the series “Lycopodium,” 2014. Installation view, Nottingham Contemporary, 2014. Photograms on an entire roll of Fuji Crystal Archive colour paper, created using the gently burning spores of the mossplant Lycopodium, each triptych 700 × 390 cm. © Raphael Hefti, Nottingham Contemporary, RaebervonStenglin, Zürich, Bruce Haines Mayfair, London. Photo: Gunnar Meier.
