Hockney or hackneyed... Has Britain’s greatest art rebel lost his edge?

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. It’s a subject Hockney first broached a decade ago in Yorkshire, in his first iPad works, returning to it in 2014 in a series of superb charcoal drawings. The identically sized paintings confine themselves to the gardens and fields immediately surrounding Hockney’s house. open image in gallery While Hockney’s works weren’t conceived as a response to Claude Monet, comparisons inevitably spring to mind He seems less interested in nature per se than in exploring the possibilities and limitations of iPad technology, finding out how much or how little effort it’s necessary for him to make to evoke a particular effect on screen. open image in gallery The 116 identically sized iPad paintings confine themselves to the gardens and fields immediately surrounding Hockney’s house in Normandy and herald the arrival of spring You can’t help but respect Hockney’s energy in bringing this physically hefty body of work together.