Hockney inspires art contest to lift spirits

DRAWING like David Hockney might seem rather a daunting – or more likely impossible – task for many.

But that is exactly the mission, should you choose to accept it, set by one artistic director – who is asking young and old to try to emulate his artwork to lift coronavirus lockdown spirits.

Isolating at home in France, Britain’s greatest living artist last month released a set of images drawn on his iPad depicting springtime in his Normandy garden.

Now others are encouraged to make pictures, by hand or on iPads, inspired by the artist in Hope in Spring: Draw like Hockney, the brainchild of another Briton in France Ruth Mackenzie, of the Chatelet theatre in Paris. Explaining the idea, Miss Mackenzie said: ‘I asked David if he would consider doing something for French people in lockdown needing solidarity and he very generously sent us one of his works exclusively and shared another nine with us and agreed to do this brilliant competition. It just seemed a lovely idea to share his fantastic spirit of optimism and hope and colour.’

She is organising the contest – with a view to putting the winners on display – with France Inter radio and the Centre Pompidou gallery, which held a major Hockney retrospective in 2017.

Hockney, who is isolating with dog Ruby and two assistants, wrote to Miss Mackenzie that the drawings are ‘a testament to the cycle of life which begins here with the birth of spring’.