Walking along a bleak corridor beneath one of King’s Cross’s newly developed shopping precincts, I’m aware of a blue light ahead, and an elderly and unmistakable northern English voice intoning: “I love life, I’ve always loved life.” It’s the voice, of course, of Britain’s best-loved artist, and as I enter an immense space with a muted green light passing over me and the walls filling, apparently miraculously, with views along Yorkshire lanes, I realise my body’s just been touched by the paintbrush of David Hockney.
The artist whose work’s been turning heads since 1962 has always prided himself on embracing new technologies, from his 1980s multi-perspective photomontages to mid-2000s experiments with iPad drawing. Now he’s taken on a form that feels very much of the moment: the kind of immersive multi-sensory “experience”, generally devoted to a single hugely popular artist, that is very popular with audiences but generally derided by art specialists. The global success of Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience has spawned shows dedicated to Gustav Klimt, Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, and others.
