David Hockney reflects upon life and art as he experiences lockdown in rural Normandy in this inspiring book which includes conversations with the artist and his latest artworks.

On turning eighty, David Hockney sought out rustic tranquility for the first time: a place to watch the sunset and the change of the seasons; a place to keep the madness of the world at bay. So when Covid-19 and lockdown struck, it made little difference to life at La Grande Cour, the centuries-old Normandy farmhouse where Hockney set up a studio a year earlier, in time to paint the arrival of spring. In fact, he relished the enforced isolation as an opportunity for even greater devotion to his art.

Spring Cannot Be Cancelled is an uplifting manifesto that affirms art’s capacity to divert and inspire. It is based on a wealth of new conversations and correspondence between Hockney and art critic Martin Gayford, his long-time friend and collaborator. Their exchanges are illustrated by a selection of Hockney’s new Normandy drawings and paintings alongside works by Van Gogh, Monet, Bruegel, and others. We see how Hockney is propelled ever forward by his infectious enthusiasms and sense of wonder. A lifelong contrarian, he has been in the public eye for sixty years, yet remains entirely unconcerned by the view of critics or even history. He is utterly absorbed by his four acres of northern France and by the themes that have fascinated him for decades: light, color, space, perception, water, trees. He has much to teach us, not only about how to see . . . but about how to live.

142 color illustrations

About the Authors

Martin Gayford is a writer and art critic. He is the author of acclaimed books on Van Gogh, Constable, and Michelangelo. His books include A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney, How Painting Happens (and why it matters), The World According to David Hockney, Venice: City of Pictures, and Love Lucian: The Letters of Lucian Freud, 1939–1954, among others.

David Hockney is one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. He has produced work in almost every medium―painting, drawing, stage design, photography, and printmaking―and has stretched the boundaries of them all. He continues to create and exhibit art, and to inspire enormous affection and admiration worldwide, in recognition of which he was awarded the L�gion d’honneur by France in January 2026.

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