David Hockney – Nur Natur – Just Nature: The Exhibition Catalogue

Author: Hockney, David & Evans, Gregory
Publisher: Kunsthalle Würth
Price: £35 including postage in the UK
Publication Date: 2009
Edition: First edition
Size: Oblong quarto
Condition: Near fine in near fine dustwrapper

Condition:

Text in German and English. The catalogue of the major exhibition. Illustrated throughout in colour.
Pages very nice and clean. Binding nice and tight. A very near fine copy in very near fine dustwrapper.

David Hockney – Nur Natur – Just Nature: A Brief Overview

David Hockney – Nur Natur – Just Nature was a major exhibition devoted to the landscape work of David Hockney, presented at the Kunsthalle Würth. The exhibition focused on Hockney’s sustained engagement with nature, perception, and seasonal change, particularly through his work in Yorkshire and later digital practice.

The title itself—Nur Natur / Just Nature—signals a deliberate emphasis: not nature as backdrop or motif,
but as primary subject and ongoing investigation.

Curatorial Focus

Nature as central theme

The exhibition concentrated on Hockney’s landscape work from roughly the early 2000s onwards, including:

• Yorkshire landscapes (especially the Wolds and Woldgate)
• Large-scale multi-panel paintings
• Digital works created on iPad and iPhone

Rather than presenting a retrospective, the curatorial approach was thematic and concentrated,
foregrounding Hockney’s return to direct observation.

Rejection of photographic naturalism

A key interpretative thread was Hockney’s challenge to conventional representation:

• Rejection of single-point perspective
• Emphasis on multiple viewpoints
• Exploration of how vision unfolds over time

The exhibition framed landscape not as static image, but as experienced reality.

Key Works and Groups

Yorkshire landscapes

Central to the exhibition were works depicting:

• Hedgerows
• Country lanes (notably Woldgate)
• Seasonal transformation

These paintings demonstrate Hockney’s commitment to:

• Working from observation
• Repeating motifs across different times of year
• Treating landscape as temporal sequence

Multi-panel compositions

Large works composed of multiple canvases were prominently displayed. These:

• Expand the field of vision
• Encourage the viewer’s eye to move across the surface
• Resist conventional pictorial unity

Such works create an immersive viewing experience, aligning with Hockney’s interest in
expanded perception.

Digital works

A significant component of the exhibition consisted of digital drawings, including:

• iPad and iPhone works
• Serial depictions of the same scene at different times of day

These works demonstrate:

• Speed of execution
• Direct engagement with fleeting light conditions
• Continuity with Hockney’s draughtsmanship

Digital media are presented not as departure, but as extension of traditional practice.

Themes

Time and change

A defining theme is the cyclical nature of landscape:

• Seasonal variation
• Daily shifts in light
• Repetition and return

Hockney’s method emphasises that no single image can capture a place fully.

Seeing and perception

The exhibition underscores Hockney’s long-standing concern:

• Vision is not fixed
• Perspective is constructed
• Representation is interpretative

This aligns the Yorkshire work with his earlier experiments in photography and Cubist-influenced composition.

Colour and structure

Colour is used:

• Structurally rather than descriptively
• Often intensified beyond naturalism
• To articulate space and movement

The result is a landscape that feels both observed and reimagined.

Exhibition Design

The installation at the Kunsthalle Würth emphasised:

• Spacious hanging to accommodate large works
• Sequential arrangement to highlight series
• Juxtaposition of painting and digital media

This allowed viewers to trace Hockney’s evolving approach while maintaining thematic coherence.

Context within Hockney’s Career

Nur Natur – Just Nature represents:

• A culmination of Hockney’s return to landscape
• A synthesis of painting, drawing, and digital media
• A reaffirmation of direct observation in contemporary art

It follows earlier major exhibitions of his Yorkshire work, but sharpens the focus on
nature as subject and method.

Critical Significance

The exhibition has been understood as:

• A late-career consolidation of Hockney’s ideas on perception
• A demonstration of continued innovation beyond traditional media
• A reassertion of landscape painting as a viable contemporary form

It positions Hockney not as a nostalgic landscapist, but as a
theorist of seeing working through landscape.

Concluding Assessment

David Hockney – Nur Natur – Just Nature is a focused and conceptually coherent exhibition
that foregrounds the artist’s sustained investigation into nature, time, and perception. By bringing together
large-scale paintings and digital works, it demonstrates that Hockney’s late practice is not a departure from
earlier concerns, but their refinement.

The exhibition affirms that, for Hockney, landscape is not merely scenery but a
means of exploring how we experience and construct the visible world.

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