David Hockney 25 review: an absolutely enormous splash

Caroline Roux | The Art Newspaper | 9th April 2025

Hockney is probably Britain’s most beloved, and widely covered, living artist. What can be learned from a huge Paris retrospective? Renowned for his optimism, Hockney’s recent work is more introspective, pushing back on accusations he is a hedonist. He remains prolific. And, seeing Hockney at scale reminds (again) that he is “a fabulous painter”. Another agrees “Like Monet and his Haystacks, there are things from our time that Hockney has shown us how to see.” A review of some key works is here.