David Hockney 21st April 2021, Yellow Flowers in a Small Milk Churn For Sale

In 21^st April 2021, Yellow Flowers in a Milk Churn, 2021, David Hockney takes the simple trope of a milk churn filled with blooming flowers, for the first time in this series, titled 20 Flowers and Some Bigger Pictures.

The artwork is part of a series, which came to Hockney when he saw the low light shining onto his vase of flowers, in the kitchen of his rustic 17^th century home, La Grande Coeur, Normandy France. He began to realise how by creating the same simple still life image, just rendering the artworks in wavering colours, contrasting textures and new perspectives of form and light, you could create an altogether new artwork and vision of the same still life flowers.

In 21^st April 2021, Yellow Flowers in a Milk Churn, 2021 the milk churn is given a new glazed, iridescent finish: through the smudging of various shades of blues and greys, the effect feels textured and as if the viewer is watching the sunlight refract off it. Inside the milk churn sits a bunch of bright yellow tulips of different heights, drooping slightly downwards as if they are beginning to wilt.

The flowers in the milk churn are positioned on the corner of the table on a blue gingham tablecloth and against a solid burgundy background – consistent with the other images in the series.

The artist pays homage to the traditional still life genre – the artwork is evocative of the formality of Matisse’s still life flowers: yet by featuring an everyday milk churn and rendering the image in the smudgy, unfinished style of the Ipad medium, Hockney creates a new discourse around the still life tradition.