David Hockney – A Closer Grand Canyon (1998)

David Hockney’s vast, richly-coloured panorama of the iconic Grand Canyon in Northern Arizona in the United States is an artistic interpretation of the archetypal US landscape. The work’s colour palette shimmers from deep red, brown, orange, pink and yellow to greenish hues, underpinning the experience of the landscape’s alternating shapes and textures, its different levels and huge distances. The last light of day falls on the mountains in the background, and in the foreground of the picture a plateau stretches like a road into the picture – like a kind of springboard perched on a precipice, from which we can gaze at the overwhelming nature. By virtue of its size, the work makes a huge impression and guides our gaze on a little journey around the painting. It requires effort to take in the entire picture in one go. It could be said to resemble the experience of the actual, vast landscape, which is also pieced together by a whole series of observations. Hockney’s pictures cover 14 m2 and are composed of 60 small canvases, painted individually and then combined into a cohesive motif. The 60 sections vary. Some verge on abstraction, while others are clearly figurative. The numerous different sections invite us to explore the nature depicted, thereby hampering any smooth survey of the picture.