“Do remember they can’t cancel the Spring”
David Hockney
David Hockney 25: A Monumental Retrospective Blooms at Paris's Fondation Louis Vuitton
From 9 April to 31 August 2025, Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, France, unveils a once-in-a-lifetime retrospective: David Hockney 25. This major art exhibition presents a radiant celebration of one of the world’s most beloved living artists—David Hockney—whose boundless creativity continues to bloom well into his eighties. Spread across four floors and 11 immersive galleries, this is not only the largest exhibition ever devoted to Hockney, but arguably one of the most significant art shows Paris has seen in recent years.
A Living Legend at the Heart of Art History
Born in Bradford, England in 1937, Hockney’s career spans over seven decades. From his early days in London to the sun-soaked swimming pools of California, and later the sweeping rural landscapes of Yorkshire and Normandy, Hockney has persistently redefined painting and image-making. Today, he is regarded as a master of perspective, colour, and emotional nuance in art.
Now based in London after years in France and the United States, Hockney has defied ill health to see David Hockney 25 come to life. Accompanied by carers and undeterred by personal physical challenges, he remains as vibrant and dedicated as ever—working up to six hours a day in the studio and personally overseeing the exhibition layout
A Landmark Exhibition at Fondation Louis Vuitton
The Fondation Louis Vuitton, a jewel of contemporary architecture designed by Frank Gehry, provides the perfect setting for this sprawling art gallery show. Backed by LVMH and dedicated to supporting modern and contemporary art, the Fondation’s expansive and light-filled halls have been entirely given over to Hockney’s work—something no artist has ever achieved before.
Bringing together more than 400 works from 1955 to 2025, the exhibition draws from international museum collections, private lenders, and the artist’s own studio. Oil paintings, acrylics, drawings, iPad works, digital animations, immersive video, and even set designs—Hockney’s unrelenting experimentation with styles and mediums takes centre stage.
The Journey Through Hockney’s Artistic World
The exhibition is arranged thematically and chronologically, beginning with Hockney’s early years in Bradford. The basement level showcases key early works such as Portrait of My Father (1955), his Swinging Sixties London scenes, and his iconic California swimming pool paintings, including A Bigger Splash (1967) and Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1972).
A particular highlight is the display of double portraits—deeply personal, psychologically charged works such as Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy and Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy. These pieces remind us of Hockney’s boldness in exploring themes of identity and intimacy.
From there, visitors ascend into a world of nature and rebirth, echoing the arrival of spring, a recurring symbol throughout Hockney’s later works. The Yorkshire landscapes erupt in hawthorn and blossom (May Blossom on the Roman Road, 2009), culminating in the monumental Bigger Trees Near Warter (2007), a winter panorama that fuses traditional English landscape with digital vision.
Digital Flowers, iPad Portraits, and Normandy Seasons
The central focus of the retrospective is the last 25 years, a period of extraordinary inventiveness. Hockney’s move to Normandy in 2019 sparked a new chapter, resulting in daily iPad paintings of orchards, hedgerows, and village lanes. The 220 for 2020 series, displayed floor-to-ceiling in Gallery 5, is a dazzling ode to life’s rhythm—spring, nature, and renewal, even during the isolating days of lockdown.
Portraiture also takes a central place, with over 60 paintings of friends, carers, and cultural figures like Harry Styles, alongside floral still lifes and vivid self-portraits. These works, created digitally but framed traditionally, blur the line between past and future art forms.
An Artistic Pilgrimage Through Time
Further galleries showcase Hockney’s tributes to European art history, including The Great Wall (2000)—a visual argument on the role of optics in Renaissance painting. His admiration for Van Gogh, Cézanne, Fra Angelico, and Blake echoes through the rooms, with recent works such as After Blake: Less is Known than People Think (2024) offering philosophical reflection as much as visual pleasure.
A stunning immersive installation, combining opera, video, and performance, transforms one gallery into a living theatre. Here, Hockney reinterprets decades of stage design in a multisensory crescendo that underscores his lifelong connection with music and movement. The exhibition concludes in a more contemplative space, where intimate self-portraits and new spiritually charged paintings form a quiet farewell to the journey. Despite frailty, Hockney remains a force of nature—optimistic, expressive, and joyfully alive.
A Celebration of Art, Spring, and Resilience
David Hockney 25 is more than a retrospective—it’s a celebration of life, love, nature, and the unquenchable spirit of an artist who has always looked closely at the world, only to find beauty. At a time when Paris is reasserting itself as Europe’s capital of culture, this exhibition stands as a monumental event not just for Hockney’s career but for the global art world.
Visitors are greeted by a message first shared by Hockney during the pandemic: “Do remember they can’t cancel the spring.” In 2025, that phrase echoes louder than ever within the walls of Fondation Louis Vuitton—a beacon of hope, art, and the seasons’ eternal return.
