Escape to the country
This week: Hockney's biggest work, a folk horror classic, the National Trust's hidden treasures and beacons of fire
‘Everything is here! Every kind of tree - apple, pear, plum - and you see the sky all around you’ - enthused David Hockey to the art critic Martin Gayford with whom he corresponded throughout the pandemic lockdown. Like many of us in that disorientated period of global panic, he sought out nature as his panacea. But unlike those of us here in the UK, our contact with the outside world limited to our daily permitted ‘Boris walks’, the artist was surrounded by greenery. Hockney moved to Normandy in 2019, buying a centuries-old half-timbered farmhouse. His self-imposed isolation became a state-imposed one when Coronavirus began spreading across Europe in early-2020.
While we, with our usual pastimes cancelled, were learning to re-notice the wilderness that had, we discovered, been hiding in plain sight all along, Hockney was expanding on themes of light, colour, space and perception that have fascinated him for decades. The works he completed in 2020 include 220 iPad paintings, many of which he has joined together to create A Year in Normandie, a 90.75m-long frieze, which has just reopened at Salts Mill in Saltaire.
‘I think these iPad works are much better than the last lot I did’
Printed on paper, the artist’s biggest ever picture is pinned to a specially-constructed wall in the attic of Salts Mill, a huge, timber-beamed space. The simplicity of the industrial backdrop allows the frieze to breathe, immersing the viewer in its scenes of lush green fields, allowing us to imagine we’re standing under the boughs of the fruit trees he painted again and again as the seasons shifted.
Hockney himself was pretty satisfied with these pictures: ‘I think these iPad works are much better than the last lot I did. There is more detail in them […] I’m living in the middle of my subject here, and that makes a great difference because I get to know the trees a lot better.’ This quote is from Spring Cannot be Cancelled, Gayford’s book about Hockney’s time in Normandy, which was published in 2021 so focusses on the pandemic’s early months. If you haven’t yet had the chance to turns its pages, then it’s definitely worth adding to your wish-list. Conversations held between Gayford and the artist mainly by email and on Facetime are placed in the context of Hockney’s life’s work, giving a riveting insight into his thoughts on artistic processes, nature and life.
‘I’m living in the middle of my subject here, and that makes a great difference’
‘I suppose an artist or any person who continues to grow is like a tree or any living thing,’ Gayford muses on a warm evening outside the farmhouse, with the moon rising over the studio. As I read, I long to be transported to those French fields, eagerly eavesdropping on their conversation. But instead we can come close by allowing A Year in Normandie to envelop us - a 90.75m reminder that nature is there to be enjoyed. We simply have to stop and look.
David Hockney, A Year in Normandie is on display at Salts Mill, until October 29. Admission is free and there’s no need to pre-book.
This week we’re also buzzing about…
The Wicker Man: Summerisle is coming to Manchester for midsummer on June 21, when HOME will be celebrating the film’s 50th anniversary with a screening of the newly-restored version of the 2011 cut. Edith Bowman will present the event, with guests including Britt Ekland (Willow), the film’s associate musical director Gary Carpenter, and Dominic and Justin Hardy, sons of its director Robin Hardy. Book here
Hidden Treasures of the National Trust: Liverpool will be the focus of this BBC2 series next week, going behind the scenes of photographer E Chambre Hardman’s studio and Paul McCartney’s childhood home. It will be first broadcast at 9pm on Friday, May 26 and will be on iPlayer after that.
What is it That Will Last?: Abbot Hall, in Kendal, reopens to the public after a three-year refurbishment with a major exhibition spanning 10 years of Scotland-based artist Julie Brook’s exploration of remote landscapes. It includes a series of films depicting her seminal work Firestacks - dazzling beacons of fire eventually consumed by the sea. Also exhibited are pieces Brook has chosen from Abbot Hall’s own collection by artist’s including Frank Auerbach, Barbara Hepworth, John Piper, John Ruskin, JMW Turner and Elizabeth Frink.
Thank you for reading and for your continued support. Only one week in and you’ve already sent me so many lovely comments that make writing this newsletter worthwhile. If there’s anything you’d like to see featured then please drop me a line at tostoredhoney@gmail.com, find Stored Honey on Twitter or use the comment option below.
Have a great week,
Laura
Love the sound of all of these and will check them all out