The Essence: Hockney at its best.

This catalogue for the exhibition at Kunstmuseum Luzern covers the entire oeuvre of the outstanding British artist David Hockney. With more than 80 paintings, drawings, and prints, this life’s work spans Hockney’s London student years, the 1960s in Los Angeles, the reorientation of his painting in the 1980s, a decade of Yorkshire landscapes, and his most recent, monumental iPad drawings.

These works from the Tate’s collection form the magical essence of this vast oeuvre, including the double portraits My Parents and Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy, or the iconic A Bigger Splash.

The essays illuminate Hockney’s socialization in the young queer culture of 1960s England; personal contributions and recollections by Frank Gehry, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, Ed Ruscha, Christine Streuli, or Ali Smith mark Hockney’s great significance for contemporary everyday culture.