I made a visit to Westminster Abbey today and was delighted to see this window designed by David Hockney, for the Queen’s Window in commemoration of Elizabeth II being the longest reigning monarch (2018).
Hockney was inspired by the Yorkshire countryside, and here continued the theme of art based on the landscape – a genre of art he has transformed over the last decade or so. Knowing the inspiration that the Queen draws from the British landscape, Hockney interpreted the spring time of burgeoning fruitfulness in the blossoming hawthorns, to be a fitting celebration of Elizabeth’s reign.
The landscape is a mixture of old and new: the enduring land which brings forth new life in its seasons. Art too, looks to the past in its rich traditions, and to the future in its regeneration and reinterpretation of forms and techniques: the landscape here sketched firstly on an iPad before its transformation into stained glass. The British monarchy itself is old- the Abbey is the final resting place of a line of Kings and Queens stretching back a thousand years, whose lineage is set to continue into the future. And the setting of the window in the Abbey witnesses the faith which is ancient, yet expressed in meaningful and modern ways. Bravo!
(Image from Westminster Abbey.org)
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