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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Philip Oltermann European culture editor

‘A mutual love affair’: David Hockney 25 retrospective makes a splash in Paris

David Hockney’s Play Within a Play Within a Play and Me with a Cigarette, 2024-25. The self-portrait is acrylic and collage on canvas.
David Hockney’s Play Within a Play Within a Play and Me with a Cigarette, 2024-25. The self-portrait is acrylic and collage on canvas. Photograph: Jonathan Wilkinson/David Hockney, ©Jonathan Wilkinson

Poised to open its doors on Wednesday, Paris’s biggest art show of the year carries the humble title David Hockney 25. A more accurate description of its ambition would have been the name of the artist’s best-known painting: A Bigger Splash.

Purportedly focused only on the past 25 years of the Yorkshire-born painter’s career, the 456 works on display at the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s 11 vast galleries in fact span 1955-2025.

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