In the Spring of 2025, Fondation Louis Vuitton is inviting David Hockney, one of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, to take over the entire building for an exhibition that will be exceptional in its scale and its originality. The exhibition, which will be held from 9 April to 31st August 2025, will bring together more than 400 of his works (from 1955 to 2025) including paintings from international, institutional, and private collections, as well as works from the artist’s own studio and Foundation. There will be works in a variety of media including oil and acrylic painting, ink, pencil and charcoal drawing, digital art (works on iPhone, iPad, photographic drawings...) and immersive video installations.

David Hockney has been personally involved in every aspect of the exhibition and has, together with his partner and studio manager Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima, chosen to focus particularly on the past 25 years whilst also including the iconic early works, offering visitors a rare insight into his creative universe, spanning seven decades. The artist has participated in the composition of each sequence and the layout of each space, in a permanent dialogue with his assistant Jonathan
Wilkinson.

Commenting on the exhibition, he said: “This exhibition means an enormous amount because it is the largest exhibition I’ve ever had - 11 rooms in the Fondation Louis Vuitton. Some of the most recent paintings I’m working on now will be included in it, and I think it’s going to be very good.” The exhibition, David Hockney 25, will show how the artist has continually renewed both his subjects and his mode of expression over these years. David Hockney’s ability to reinvent his art with the
use of new media is exceptional - first a draughtsman, then master of all academic techniques, he is today a champion of new technologies.
As an introduction, the exhibition will begin, at the pond level, with a selection of emblematic works from the 1950s to the 1970s - including Hockney’s beginnings in Bradford (Portrait of My Father, 1955), his time in London and then California. The swimming pool - a signature theme for
the artist - appears in A Bigger Splash, 1967 and Portrait of An Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972. His series of double portraits is represented by two major works: Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy, 1970-1971 and Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, 1968. Nature becomes increasingly important in David Hockney’s work in the decade 1980 to 1990 - as illustrated by A Bigger Grand Canyon, 1998 - before he returns to Europe to continue his exploration of familiar landscapes.

Bernard Arnault

President of the Fondation Louis Vuitton

(Excerpt from the “David Hockney” book)

David Hockney is one of my favourite artists, and it is a tremendous pleasure and a privilege to have him accept our invitation to ‘take over’ the Fondation Louis Vuitton.

Hockney brings absolute joy to our world, enchanting our emotions and our thoughts. He enables us to perceive nature and the world as greater, more luminous, and also more profound. He invites us to discover ourselves.

One reason why he figures among my favourite artists is because as you grow closer to his work, at the same time you feel closer to all those who recognize themselves in him. He exudes contagious optimism. One cannot help but wonder what magic is he working, what is his secret?

I would simply respond by paraphrasing Claude Monet: David Hockney keeps our hearts awake with his colourful silence. Indeed, this might well be one key to understanding his approach.

Hockney has witnessed and played a role in three quarters of a century of creativity, a period that produced remarkable invention and transformation. Today, at the beginning of the
twenty-first century, he remains less concerned with what he has done than with what he will accomplish tomorrow, showing both young artists and young viewers how to engage with art, how to discover unexplored paths. Drawing on the immense knowledge that he has acquired by becoming intimately familiar with the works of his predecessors, Hockney is able to explore his creative universe through paintings, sketches, and engravings, not to mention as an art historian and educator. He shows us the way, while recognizing that the path that he himself has followed for nearly seventy years is continually evolving, and that this path was but one of many possible trajectories that were open to a young painter in the exhilarating worlds of London and California in the 1960s and 1970s.

When David Hockney looks at the world, he puts us at the centre, employing both his eyes and his hands to let us share the simple joys of a tree under which one finds shelter in the middle of a field, the vista stretching over a plunging canyon, or the nascent sunrise at daybreak. His
perspective reveals an entire world, his own, but one that immediately becomes ours too, shared among us all. This is why he is a great painter, a monument. The art whose secrets he patiently
seeks, and which he continues to practise today unlike any other, is a lesson learned during a lifetime dedicated to creation.

In this spring of 2025, David Hockney illuminates Paris at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. In a building created by his friend Frank Gehry, he too welcomes nature, inviting us to experience art and culture as an ‘example’ to be passed on. Gehry and Hockney are both our contemporaries, and like Gehry, Hockney is skilled at employing all the resources and technologies available to him, including the most advanced. Long an adopted Californian who has also twice spent extended periods in France - in Paris in
the 1970s and more recently several years in Normandy - David Hockney is able to feel at home
in all worlds, casting his eyes upon the sky from every latitude. This is most certainly why every generation can enjoy his work, because his art speaks to everyone.

David Hockney is one of my favourite artists, and it is a tremendous pleasure and a privilege to have him accept our invitation to ‘take over’ the Fondation Louis Vuitton.

Hockney brings absolute joy to our world, enchanting our emotions and our thoughts. He enables us to perceive nature and the world as greater, more luminous, and also more profound. He invites us to discover ourselves.

One reason why he figures among my favourite artists is because as you grow closer to his work, at the same time you feel closer to all those who recognize themselves in him. He exudes contagious optimism. One cannot help but wonder what magic is he working, what is his secret?

I would simply respond by paraphrasing Claude Monet: David Hockney keeps our hearts awake with his colourful silence. Indeed, this might well be one key to understanding his approach.

Hockney has witnessed and played a role in three quarters of a century of creativity, a period that produced remarkable invention and transformation. Today, at the beginning of the
twenty-first century, he remains less concerned with what he has done than with what he will accomplish tomorrow, showing both young artists and young viewers how to engage with art, how to discover unexplored paths. Drawing on the immense knowledge that he has acquired by becoming intimately familiar with the works of his predecessors, Hockney is able to explore his creative universe through paintings, sketches, and engravings, not to mention as an art historian and educator. He shows us the way, while recognizing that the path that he himself has followed for nearly seventy years is continually evolving, and that this path was but one of many possible trajectories that were open to a young painter in the exhilarating worlds of London and California in the 1960s and 1970s.

When David Hockney looks at the world, he puts us at the centre, employing both his eyes and his hands to let us share the simple joys of a tree under which one finds shelter in the middle of a field, the vista stretching over a plunging canyon, or the nascent sunrise at daybreak. His
perspective reveals an entire world, his own, but one that immediately becomes ours too, shared among us all. This is why he is a great painter, a monument. The art whose secrets he patiently
seeks, and which he continues to practise today unlike any other, is a lesson learned during a lifetime dedicated to creation.

In this spring of 2025, David Hockney illuminates Paris at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. In a building created by his friend Frank Gehry, he too welcomes nature, inviting us to experience art and culture as an ‘example’ to be passed on. Gehry and Hockney are both our contemporaries, and like Gehry, Hockney is skilled at employing all the resources and technologies available to him, including the most advanced. Long an adopted Californian who has also twice spent extended periods in France - in Paris in
the 1970s and more recently several years in Normandy - David Hockney is able to feel at home in all worlds, casting his eyes upon the sky from every latitude. This is most certainly why every generation can enjoy his work, because his art speaks to everyone.

David Hockney is at home here in our foundation, surrounded by his friends, both artists he has known and those whose work has accompanied him. It is an immense pleasure and at the same time a great honour to give him the keys to the Fondation Louis Vuitton this spring.

I want to once again express my gratitude to all those who have made this fantastic exhibition possible, starting with my advisor Jean-Paul Claverie, for having unfailingly supported the inspired idea to invite David Hockney, who, with his curiosity, passion, and generosity, immediately accepted. I also thank the artistic director of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Suzanne Pagé, for having made this utopia a reality alongside all the teams at the Fondation, in particular François Michaud.

My thanks go as well to Sir Norman Rosenthal, our guest curator, whose long and close collaboration with the artist set in motion the fruitful dialogue that will now delight all those who discover the David Hockney exhibition. Lastly, to David Hockney, let me simply say to you and to all your friends who have been with you throughout the preparation of this exhibition, from London to Los Angeles and Paris, we all owe you a deeply heartfelt thank you!
May we always remember the optimism of your words: “Do remember, they can’t cancel the spring”

It’s the
NOW NOW
that is that is
ETERNAL

When I started preparing for this exhibition almost two years ago,
I felt it was important to review several bodies of work through the
years to curate a representative selection for the public.
The show means an enormous amount to me because it is the largest
I have ever had – eleven rooms in the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s
great Parisian building, designed by my LA friend, the architect
Frank Gehry. I have chosen to concentrate on the past twenty-five
years, inspired by the time I have spent in Yorkshire, Los Angeles,
Normandy, and London. Some of my most recent paintings are in-
cluded, and I do think it is a very enjoyable and visually interesting
survey of works.
Not many artists have been drawing similar themes and the same
people for more than sixty years. What I am trying to do is to bring
people closer to something, because art is about sharing. You wouldn’t
be an artist unless you wanted to share an experience, a thought.”

David Hockney

This text and the following excerpts are extracted from the book “David Hockney” Edited by Sir Norman Rosenthal, Published by Thames & Hudson and Fondation Louis Vuitton
© 2025 Thames & Hudson Ltd, London/Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris

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