In a plain case of you can’t please all the people all of the time, a new tube roundel designed by the venerable national-treasure artist David Hockney has sparked a wave of criticism from some quarters. Hockney is possibly the UK’s favourite painter, but even in his eighties his work remains divisive, with a few people always chipping in that old chestnut ‘my [insert age of child] could have done better’ etc etc.
The roundel has been unveiled at Piccadilly Circus Underground station as part of the newly elected mayor’s Let’s do London campaign, which Time Out reported on the day it was announced. But, uh-oh, it’s not gone down so well, especially among the Twitterati.
‘It looks like the work of a six-year-old who ran out of space,’ fulminated one user. Another was more generous (by a year): ‘Seven-year-olds could have knocked this up with a few crayons.’
Others got all creative with the old MS Paint, and provided their own version for other stations:
You think that's good...wait till you get a load of Paddington!! pic.twitter.com/SMRp8NREiL
— Notorious N.A.T. (@Helio_Spherical) May 11, 2021
When do I get my cheque? pic.twitter.com/yhjwYWf9Pn
— Iain M Spardagus (@IMSpardagus) May 12, 2021
Others took a longer view (to be honest, probably accurately):
We'll hate it.
— Joseph Elliott-Coleman (@Jelliottcoleman) May 12, 2021
Then we'll get used to it.
Then we'll own it.
Then we'll be unable to imagine life without it.
Then we'll be like: "Oi! You leave that Hockney sign alone!"
Anyway, putting it out there, but we think it’s quite nice. It’s fun and colourful and irreverent and basically so what? Also, if some other 83-year-old MAN FROM YORKSHIRE had got his art on the Underground in London, he’d probably have raised several million quid in cash from all these haters and got a patronising tabloid pat on the back.
Or maybe we should be proud and grateful that our collective scepticism and ire have remained undiminished by a whole year of trying to be nice to each other.
Luuurrrve David Hockney? There’s a whole show of his iPad drawings at the Royal Academy.
In other barmy infrastructure news, work has started on the big fake hill at Marble Arch.
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