Our newest collection ‘Untitled‘ is an homage to the art that has continuously inspired Susan Bijl in her design work. One of these inspirations recently had an enormous overview exhibition at the Tate Gallery in Londen, and is now on show next to his predecessor at the Van Gogh Museum. You can easily say he is one of the most influential and popular artist of the 20th century. And rightfully so. Yes, we’re talking David Hockney.
It’s no coincidence that ‘Pool’ is one of the colours in the ‘Untitled’ collection. The colours of David Hockney have been an inspiration throughout the existence of SUSAN BIJL. David Hockney is a super prolific artist with a very rich body of work, that covers 6 decades and consists of paintings, drawings, photographic works, etchings, iPad drawings and many other ways of expression. It shows an artist who is not afraid to constantly expand beyond his comfort zone.
We particularly love his paintings from the late sixties and early seventies, the period that has spawned the well known ‘Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)’ as well as other beautiful pieces like ‘Peter Getting Out of Nick’s Pool’ and ‘Still Life On a Glass Table’.
The way Hockney uses colour really brings his view on his subjects to life. Each colour is full of character, yet becomes even fresher and stronger in the way it’s complemented by the other colours. It’s also interesting to notice that most of these paintings feature 2 dominant elements (as captured in the titles), just like SUSAN BIJL’s designs are made of 2 components.
The fantastic Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam currently has an exposition on David Hockney, focusing on his portraits of nature. In the ‘Untitled’ collection there are several colours (i.e. ‘Apple’, ‘Country’, ‘Horse’ and ‘Dahlia’) that are easily recognizable from the works exhibited here. We strongly recommend you to pay a visit to the museum and witness these beautiful works from one of Susan’s greatest inspirations.
The exhibition ‘Hockney – Van Gogh: The Joy of Nature‘ runs till May 26th at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
