David Hockney, "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" (left) and "Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy" (right)

David Hockney is the latest artist to receive the honour of a solo exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. My own history with Hockney’s work has been ambivalent: I found the 2017 retrospective at Tate Britain rather underwhelming, yet I greatly enjoyed Hockney's Eye, an exhibition at the Teylers Museum in Haarlem in 2022, which explored his reflections on art history and his intriguing but controversial theory that, for centuries, artists employed optical devices to translate three-dimensional reality onto a flat plane.

Regrettably, the current exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton confirmed my earlier reservations. I remain deeply enamoured of the works Hockney produced shortly after moving to Los Angeles in 1964. "A Bigger Splash" (1967) is, to my mind, a modernist masterpiece, as is "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" (1972). I also admire "A Lawn Being Sprinkled" (1967) and "Savings and Loan Building" (1967), both of which balance figurative clarity with a flirtation toward abstraction. The double portraits from that era, such as "Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy" (1968) and "Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy" (1970–71), are equally captivating and retain a psychological acuity that still feels fresh.

Room upon room of this...

But from the mid-1970s onwards, something shifted. Hockney’s exuberant landscapes, with their candy-coloured trees and ceaselessly cheerful gardens, leave me unmoved. One can admire the craftsmanship, particularly in his portraits, while feeling no compulsion to linger. Of course, taste is inherently subjective; if you like everything there is something wrong with your critical faculties. So don’t take my word for it and judge for yourself.

I had been hoping for a generous selection of Hockney’s cubist-inspired photographic collages, which I consider among his best and most inventive works. Instead, the exhibition offers only a reproduction of "Pearblossom Hwy., 11–18th April 1986, #2", the original of which resides in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. This is because Hockney, who has been personally involved in every aspect of the exhibition, has chosen to focus particularly on the past 25 years. If only someone had gently nudged him into a different direction.

David Hockney 25 is at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris until 31 August 2025.

Hockney's Eye at the Teylers Museum.