David Hockney's Bigger Trees Near Warter Presented at Tate Britain

　　British artist David Hockney poses for photographers near his painting "Bigger Trees Near Warter" at Tate Britain in London. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett.

　　LONDON.- David Hockney gifted Bigger Trees near Warter 2007 to Tate in 2008. The oil painting, his largest ever, was made on fifty canvas panels and was executed outside, en plein air. Measuring 4.6 x 12.2 metres (15 x 40 feet), its subject is a typical Yorkshire landscape, west of Bridlington. The work was first exhibited in 2007 at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

　　Focusing on the arrival of spring before trees have come into leaf, Bigger Trees near Warter features copses, buildings and a road curving to the left flanked by early flowering daffodils.

　　Hockney’s ambition to paint such a large-scale canvas posed a problem as it was impossible for him to step back and view the whole work. He began by making drawings and used these to locate where each canvas would fit in the composition. From these a computer-mosaic of the picture was generated enabling him to step back, albeit in a virtual space. Hockney was then able to take the individual canvas panels to the site and thus create his enormous work over a six-week period.

　　Commenting on the gift, Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate said: ‘Standing before David Hockney’s Bigger Trees near Warter, the viewer is overwhelmed by the beauty of the winter trees and the energy of the Yorkshire landscape. In this work he has deftly joined together the tradition of painting en plein air with digital technology.’

【编辑：尹苏桥】