I must confess that I once assumed the best way to meet a major painter was in the hushed rooms of a grand museum, catalogue in hand. Yet there is something quietly effective about watching a well-made film about the artist's process unfold on a cinema screen, especially when the subject is David Hockney.
The documentary Exhibition on Screen: David Hockney at the Royal Academy of Arts, directed by Phil Grabsky and running 85 minutes, returns to UK cinemas this summer. It examines two significant exhibitions the artist held at the Royal Academy in 2012 and 2016. Those shows drew huge crowds and confirmed what many had long sensed: Hockney remains a master whose work connects directly with a broad public.
A welcome alternative to politicised art discourse
In an era when so much commentary on visual art seems determined to overlay every canvas with contemporary grievances, this film offers a refreshing focus on the things that actually matter: line, colour, observation and the restless curiosity of an individual talent. Hockney, widely considered Britain's most popular artist, has attracted millions of visitors to his global exhibitions. The Exhibition on Screen series, of which this is a part, gives cinematic access to major artists and the institutions that champion them.
The Showroom Cinema in Sheffield will screen the documentary on Tuesday 21 July at 13:00 and again on Wednesday 22 July at 12:30. Similar programmes run at other venues including Manchester's Science and Industry Museum and Derby Quad, forming part of a wider summer season of art documentaries. These screenings remind us that public and private cultural efforts still sustain the transmission of skill and beauty across generations.
Hockney's career stands as a quiet rebuke to the idea that serious painting must retreat into irony or ideology. From his early contributions to pop art to his later experiments with technology, he has consistently trusted the eye and the hand. The film explores that creative process without unnecessary adornment. It lets the work speak.
The institutions that continue to present such canonical exhibitions perform a genuine public service, preserving a living link to the best of the Western artistic tradition.
One feels a modest exasperation at how often today's arts coverage treats established masters as mere launching pads for theoretical debate. Hockney's popularity suggests audiences retain a healthy appetite for work that rewards looking rather than lecturing. The Royal Academy, by hosting those memorable shows, and the distributors who bring this documentary back to local screens, demonstrate that the old model still functions rather well in practice.