NEC Displays Bring David Hockney’s Digital Art to Life

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Case Study

Famed British artist David Hockney has embraced new technologies

throughout his career—everything from Polaroid cameras to fax

machines—shifting between media as his own style evolves.

From Oct. 2013 to Jan. 2014, the de Young Museum in San Francisco

exhibited an expansive collection of Hockney’s work, “David Hockney:

A Bigger Exhibition,” with a focus on his recent video art and drawings

composed on iPads.

Several massive NEC Display video walls featuring the technology-

enabled work serve as a dramatic centerpiece amid conventional

paintings and drawings.

“All told, this array forms an in-depth portrait of the artist as a tradition-

fluent progressive working nonstop at the height of his powers, deftly

juggling digital and analog modes of representation and energetically

pursuing newness on several fronts,” according to the New York Times

review of the show.

Because the video walls were part of an art installation, color accuracy

and image sharpness were critical. The scale of the images required

multiple panels, so it was important that the bezels were thin enough to

produce a uniform image.

Quick Facts

Facility• de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Location• San Francisco, CA

Challenges • Displaying vibrant, large-scale video and digital art installations

Solution• 55” NEC X551UN

Date• October 2013

The Challenge

The screens needed to display images vibrantly no matter the lighting

conditions because the exhibit extended through several galleries,

some of which also showcased paintings. One gallery had a skylight,

while another was dark and enclosed on two sides, more along the

lines of a miniature theater. The displays also needed to be durable

enough to run all day, every day while museum guests wandered

through the show.

Case Study

The Solution

“We’ve used other screens in the past that have stopped working in

the middle of a show,” said Rich Rice, the de Young’s Audio Visual

Manager. “It’s a lot of money when you’re working with a lot of

screens, but using something that’s commercial-grade is important.”

One video wall would feature footage of the same wooded area near

Hockney’s home, filmed with a digital video camera during each of the

four seasons. Another followed jugglers moving across a stage and,

as a result, across several screens. Some of the digital video paintings

would be displayed in a static image, while others would run as a

recording of the actual painting process.

Hockney had successfully used NEC displays for other installations,

but the curator shared several possibilities with him for “A Bigger

Exhibition” since the museum was footing the bill for the large investment.

After weighing all the options, Hockney and his team decided NEC was

still the best choice.

The museum purchased two 6x3 arrays, four sets of 3x3 configurations

and eight single screens, all featuring 55-inch ultra-narrow X551UN displays.

With NEC’s true-to-life color capabilities, the vivid hues Hockney uses in

his paintings leave a stunning impression. “So many displays are bright

and nice enough, but they just don’t look real,” Rice said. “Hockney’s

colors look amazing on the NEC panels. They’re true colors, bright and

good looking.”

The ultra-narrow 3.5 mm bezels virtually disappear so the panels appear

to present a single, unified image (though Hockney likes to play with the

images a bit and purposely misalign them). The video doesn’t hesitate at

all, either, so it flows as a smooth, continuous image. And because the

displays are designed to be on all the time, the museum’s long hours

aren’t a problem—visitors don’t leave disappointed that a malfunctioning

screen prevented them from seeing the art.

In this case the museum had a different source for each screen, but

controlling the panels is simple, Rice said, with the option to insert the

input from a computer into one screen and then daisy-chain it to the rest

so they all run in sync. The configuration can just as easily display the

same image or video on each screen, or tile the image so each screen

shows a different portion of the whole.

The result has been one of the most popular exhibits ever to run at the

de Young, Rice said.

“The show was very well-received, and word got around,” Rice said.

“Even people who typically do not go to art museums were awestruck

by the large digital images. That doesn’t always happen. It was a

fantastic, grand show.”

Now that the show is over, the largest of the Hockney installations will

remain at the de Young through October 2014 and may become a

permanent exhibit. The museum has repurposed the rest of the displays

for other uses, including signage for visitors and a 4x4 grid in the exhibition

offices that curators use to look at floor plans for upcoming projects.

But even though “A Bigger Exhibition” has been mostly dismantled, it’s

left a lasting impact.

“People were mesmerized by it,” Rice said. “It was a huge success.”

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DAVID HOCKNEY3 - INSTALLATIONS SHOTS OF “A BIGGER EXHIBITION” AT THE DE YOUNG FINE ARTS MUSEUM 2013© DAVID HOCKNEYPHOTO CREDIT: RANDY DODSONIMAGES COURTESY THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS OF SAN FRANCISCO