David Hockney 28th February 2021, Roses in a Blue Vase For Sale

David Hockney’s Roses in a Blue Vase is a still life artwork created as an Ipad painting printed on paper in February 2021 from La Grande Coeur, his 17^th century rustic home in Normandy, France. Part of a larger series, 20 Flowers and Some Bigger Pictures, these images of still life flowers in vases, milk bottles, milk churns and glasses were also exhibited next to a large scale photographic drawing of numerous photos pieced together to create a 314 ft long installation inspired by the artist’s latest visit to the Bayeux Tapestry.

In Roses in a Blue Vase, Hockney creates a discourse between art history, 17^th century Eastern philosophy, and the traditional still life genre: the artwork strongly pays homage to Matisse’s still life, such as Red Interior, Still Life on a Blue Table, as well as the scroll layout of 17^th Chinese art that enabled the ‘unfolding’ of a visual narrative, as well as the fleeting stillness of flowers between rebirth and renewal.

‘I think it’s what we need today. New looking fresh pictures of a very beautiful world,’ commented Hockney of these vibrant images at once traditional and familiar, but now created through an Ipad screen.

Roses in a Blue Vase depicts a simple blue round based bulbous vase with three pink tulips and their stems sprouting from the top of the vase. The blue vase is situated on a red gingham tablecloth from which we can decipher a shadow seeping through, presumably the sun coming from a window not visible in the image. The bright coloured vase, flowers and tablecloth are contrasted with a burgundy background resembling traditional still life portraiture.

The ‘brushstrokes’ of the Ipad medium enable Hockney to play with colour shading, graphic lines and smudging juxtaposed with the solid coloured background; re-inventing traditional still life for a new generation of art lovers.