ICM - Leeds Design Agency

It was November 1989, my last year of high school, suddenly the news on television has become interesting. The falling of the Berlin Wall was one of the first televised ‘life-changing’ moments I can remember watching on TV.

That same night David Hockney was faxing artwork in a live event witnessed by spectators and masterminded by Jonathan Silver of Salts Mill, Bradford. Hockney sent a 144-sheet composite image, Tennis, to the 1853 Gallery at Salts Mill.

At the time, the fax was an important bit of business kit, faxes were sent then like emails are today – we used to say ‘how did we ever cope before the fax machine?’.

Jump forward twenty years and Hockney is still embracing new media for his art, he has become a fan of an iPhone app called Brushes.

The 71-year-old painter invested in an iPhone earlier this year and has created a host of drawings including landscapes, portraits and images of flowers, all using Brushes.

His exploration of the iPhone culminated in an exhibition ‘Drawing In A Printing Machine’, displaying ten landscapes and eighteen portraits at London’s Annely Juda Gallery in the summer of 2009.