David Hockney, easily the most likable grand old man of the art world, has a new exhibition in Paris.  An exhibition displayed on, and created on, iPhones and iPads! He started this project by experimenting with the Brushes app for the iPhone by drawing the flowers on his bedside table or the view of the sunrise from his bed in the morning, and then he would email them out to friends.

Now on view at the Fondation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent, the exhibit, as Hockney said, is the first ever exhibition to be emailed to the gallery.  (The banner image above is not the exhibit– that’s an image from the opening party at Tokyo Art Club in Paris.)  The gallery installed 30 iPhones and 30 iPads, and over 300 images rotate across the screens, with new images being added at will as Hockney creates more.   Also remarkable is that the screens sometimes show the evolution of the images, so the viewer sees not only the final product, but also the various stages of creation!  This all thrills me.

I am fairly obsessed with this whole concept for a number of reasons.  It so interestingly calls into question many of the age-old art issues– seeing the artist’s “hand” in the work (it is literally finger-painting, and yet there is no tangible evidence of human-involvement, like globs of paint on a canvas), how the artist can make money (how do you sell these?), the monetary value of a piece of art (if there is no way to prove an “original,” and it’s endlessly reproduce-able…), how to display the art (do you print it out? or does it always live on a screen?)…

And, on top of that, I love the fact that he’s used new media to execute a traditional style. Most art I see that employs new media seems to be trying too hard to be avant-garde, and I find it exhausting. It’s overly conceptual and underly aesthetic. Here, Hockney simply sketches as he would with pencil and paper, but he has upgraded to the latest media available.

There’s a great video, where you see how the exhibit is done, as well as how he creates the works, at the Fondation website here. Unfortunately it was un-embeddable so you’ll have to click over to see it.  The video in German below at least gives you a preview (I don’t know why but there are 0 good videos in English about this exhibit).  Also an excellent NPR interview here.

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