David Hockney has shown a landscape painting inspired by fly-tipping for the first time. The semi abstract depicts an idyllic country lane with a pile of rubbish protruding as the central composition. Mr Hockney released the image, located in Woldgate in East Yorkshire, after a fan visited his latest exhibition and was horrified at the reality of the scene. Bob Ward later took his story to BBC Look North, who got in touch with the artist and asked for a comment. The artist pulled the 2011 painting from his archives which shows that fly-tipping has been prevalent for a long time in the area.
The artwork was created by using an iPad He described the fly-tipping as “very sad”. “Sadly, hardly anybody ever watches the arrival of spring on Woldgate. “It is a rarely travelled road and I think for that reason, and that it’s free, people leave trash on it. It’s all very sad. “The very best light on Woldgate is about 6am in the summer, with long shadows from the morning sun and again nobody sees it. “People just don’t notice the beauty, which was why I tried to capture it.”
An exhibition of 33 pictures by David Hockney entitled The Arrival of Spring, is now on display at Salts Mill. The gallery is set in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saltaire. The Grade II Listed historic mill building was built in 1853 by Sir Titus Salt along with the village to house his workers. The whole area is of architectural and historical interest. The 1853 Gallery is home to one of the largest collections of David Hockney’s art. On the ground floor you will find a space which houses a permanent exhibition of works by the artist.
The five-foot high framed pictures were drawn on the Bradford-born artist’s iPad during the latter part of the years he lived in Bridlington, when he painted the Yorkshire Wolds and created the massive Bigger Picture exhibition for London’s Royal Academy. These 33 pictures, to be joined by 16 others later this year, each depict a specific day between January 1 and May 31, 2011. Hockney regards the pictures as part of a single work, each of which encapsulates a moment in time between the changing seasons in East Yorkshire.
East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s spokesperson said the site had since been cleaned up. “Fly-tipping is a problem in this area, blighting the countryside and costing the authority money”,he added.