“The world is very very beautiful if you look at it, but most people don’t look very much. They scan the ground in front of them so they can walk, they don’t really look at things incredibly well, with an intensity. I do.” David Hockney once said.

The Lightroom’s immersive and digital exhibition invites viewers to do just that, to reflect and look. More than 400,000 people have attended both Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) and The Moonwalkers, by Tom Hanks since Lightroom opened in 2023 in the vibrant Coal Drops Yard in King’s Cross, home to Central St Martins, a wonderful market and numerous creative shops including Tom Dixon’s headquarters. These two successful shows, which are both produced in association with 59 Productions, rotate every day of the week starting on June 17. David Hockney’s Bigger & Closer is staged on Sundays.

The digital retrospective features a life of exploration through key themes including Hockney’s life in Los Angeles, his work with Opera productions, swimming pools, Normandy. Along with a specially commissioned score by Nico Muhly, Hockney’s voice guides visitors as the show merges from tableau to tableau. The artist brings a lot of emotions as he discusses perspectives, the fascination for seasons and nature, using photography to ‘draw with the camera’ capturing the passing of time in polaroids, and demonstrating why only paint can properly convey the Grand Canyon.

Nicholas Hytner, executive producer says: “What’s so exciting about this show is how authentically Hockney it is. Listening to his voice in this astonishing new space while seeing his artworks unfurl around the four walls is going to be both an experience and an education. It suggests how potent this medium will be for the other creators and artists with whom we will make new and original Lightroom shows in the years to come.”

Hockney is one of the most important artists living today. His artistic pursuits stretch across a vast range of media, from photographic collages to full-scale opera stagings and from fax drawings to an intensive art historical study of the optical devices of Old Masters. He received the gold medal for his year at London’s Royal College of Art in 1962. The artist had his first one-man show in 1963 at the age of 26, and by 1970 the first of several major retrospectives was organized at Whitechapel Gallery, London, which subsequently traveled to three additional European institutions. Hockney has received a vast number of accolades throughout his career, including nine honorary degrees from institutions worldwide.

David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) runs until 6th October before Vogue: Reinventing the Runway takes over so make sure to catch it as it’s a wonderful insight into Hockney’s life, oeuvre and mind.

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