"Do remember they can't cancel the spring."

I'm sure there are many people who want to forget about 2020 but can't.

During the pandemic, freedom of movement and ability to meet with family and friends were restricted, and public places such as museums and movie theaters were closed. While feeling threatened by something unknown, I found myself reflecting on the transience and preciousness of everyday life.

In the spring of 2020, when despair and feelings of stagnation were widespread, David Hockney was in Normandy in the north of France, and continued to paint landscapes as if to find hope in art. The series from that time will be on display at an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 2023, and the joyful colors of spring budding on the yellow-green earth were so dazzling that it felt as if we were watching them together.

No matter what situation humanity is in, the sun rises, plants sprout, the wind rustles, sunlight filters through the trees, rain falls, and flowers bloom. No one can stop the arrival of spring. And no one can stop the excitement of spring, or the beauty of spring from filling our hearts.

The works, painted with digital brushes on an iPad as a canvas, are the very brilliance of life that moved Hockney's heart and he could not help but record. Whatever the technique or tool, how to express something beautiful beautifully? I am impressed by the fact that a master has an outstanding talent for this. When you enlarge a beautiful landscape painting, you can see the familiar digital strokes and stamp marks on a computer screen. They say that "God is in the details," but no matter what the details are, the genius who captures beauty is God.

Personally, I prefer analogue works to digital works, but Hockney is different. I feel hope in the way he uses digital tools that he has encountered as he has grown older, and in the way he enjoys them freely. The spring of life will come again and again to those who seek it.

This collection of beloved landscapes is also a great book. The vivid colors of digital, which tend to be muted in print, are reproduced as faithfully as possible, and the iPad-sized format with impressive rounded corners makes this a special art book that only Hockney could have produced.

As I look at this book that seems to be bursting with spring light, I will look forward to the spring in Shinshu.

＿

Text and photos by Fumika Arasawa designer Freelance ⇄ company employee, occasionally helping friends out. Moved to Matsumoto in 2024. Instagram: @fumika * Click here to purchase related products at rovakk musikk.

＿

David Hockney - THE ARRIVAL OF SPRING, NORMANDY 2020

Artwork: David Hockney
Format: Book, Hardcover
Product no: 9781912520640 (ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS)
Watch on rovakk music

＿

WALLFLOWER CATALOGUE

In each episode, designer Ayaka Arasawa will introduce one of her inspirational artworks, which will blossom on your walls every day.
It will be updated once a month, at the timing of the second solar term (around the 20th of each month).
We look forward to hearing your feedback.

Bookmarks and archives can be found here .