David Hockney 27th July 2021, Some Gladioli For Sale

David Hockney’s 27^th July 2021, Some Gladioli, 2021 is one of three artworks in his 20 Flowers and Some Bigger Pictures, which depict the bright gladioli flower. 27^th July 2021, Some Gladioli, 2021 is an Ipad painting printed on paper, depicting a similar still life flowers portrait as the other artworks in the series, which Hockney created during the second year of the global pandemic from his Normandy home.

Whilst these flower images take the same form, Hockney made variations in colour, style and form: Unusually the artist dates these still life flower images, as if to suggest the renewal and rebirth of nature over a period of time and under intense observation, can shift from day to day.

27^th July 2021, Some Gladioli, 2021 is one of the most obviously ‘modern’ in its digital depiction of the traditional still life genre: unlike the other images, this artwork is set against a bright blue background with an abstracted version of the flowers in the vase as if two images have been spliced together. The small glass vase is fully transparent with the ‘gladioli’ meaning ‘little sword’: the big bunch of upright green stems overflow from the top of the vase. The verdant stems are those of the tall gladioli – elegant pink and rouge buds layered down the top half of each green stalk.

In 27^th July 2021, Some Gladioli, 2021 the vase sits on the same gingham tablecloth as the other artworks in the series – this one is bright red gingham – yet the shadows created by ‘the low sun’ are now against the blue wall background not the table.

Hockney imbues the still life flowers with an emotion and sensuality through his colour drenched style: through different colours, distortions and perspective, each set of flowers are depicted with an individuality as resonant as his depictions of humans.