'David Hockney's trumpeted and garlanded landscape show at the Royal Academy is more than just the must-see art exhibition of the new year, though it is certainly that too. It is also a bold assertion about the place of skill, craftsmanship and beauty in the making of art, which sets Hockney gloriously at odds with much of art's recent past.'– Guardian Online

'… Hockney, in his works here so persistently at war with the boundaries of painting, has no trouble turning this conflict into graceful, meditative works with a profound, almost moving love of place.' – The ArtsDesk.com

''A Bigger Picture' is abundant, thrilling testimony to the twenty-first century artist’s many opportunities to make work on a vast scale ... and the catalogue is 'stunning'– Times Literary Supplement

Illustrated with paintings, iPad drawings and video stills, many of which have never been seen before, this landmark publication confirms David Hockney as one of the greatest artists of his generation.

This vital new book is published to accompany the exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2012.

David Hockney has always been closely associated with Pop Art and California, where he has lived for much of his life but this major study of his work redefines him as an important painter of the English countryside, presenting his recent landscapes for the first time. In an attempt to renew contemporary art, Hockney has returned to painting in the open air, observing with honesty and intensity the scenery of his childhood in East Yorkshire.

Co-curator of the exhibition Marco Livingstone explores this bold departure in the context of Hockney’s sixty-year career, while other contributors address the artist’s place in the landscape tradition, his recent video works and their relationship to English landscape film-making, and his ongoing use of new technologies.

'I used to point out, at art school you can teach the craft; it's the poetry you can't teach. But now they try to teach the poetry and not the craft.' See the 3 January Guardian article about Damien Hirst and David Hockney's head-to-head exhibitions in 2012

See the article about the book and the RA show in GQ magazine

Tim Barringer is Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art at Yale University. Edith Devaney is a curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and co-curator of ‘David Hockney: A Bigger Picture’. Margaret Drabble is an author and novelist. Martin Gayford is a writer and chief art critic for Bloomberg News. He is the author of 'A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney', also published by Thames & Hudson. Marco Livingstone is an art historian and co-curator of ‘David Hockney: A Bigger Picture’ and the author of numerous publications on the artist. Xavier F. Salomon is Curator of Southern Baroque in the Department of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The Painting above is Winter Timber, 2009. Oil on fifteen canvases. Private collection ©David Hockney. Photo: Jonathan Wilkinson

Also of interest
A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney
David Hockney by Marco Livingstone
Secret Knowledge by David Hockney