David Hockney. The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020

For over sixty years, David Hockney's wide-ranging output has been marked by his curiosity about new artistic mediums and methods. He was an early adopter of the iPad, and his virtuosity on the device is now such that he can paint the most demanding of subjects. From bare winter twigs to branches laden with delicate blossom, he has depicted the annual miracle of new life in his four-acre garden in Normandy.
That he did this during the first wave of the Covid pandemic in 2020 gives this arc of glorious, colour-filled images a particular charge.