Today Spoleto Festival director Nigel Redden revealed this year’s festival poster, a colorful image from artist David Hockney, entitled “Hither and Dither.” The painting, acrylic on canvas, 48 x 96″, was first shown publicly at the Pace Gallery in New York as part of the exhibit, David Hockney: Something New in Painting (and Photography) [and even Printing].
In a press release Redden said, “In addition to being a prolific painter, David has created a number of set and costume designs for opera houses worldwide.” This is the third festival poster that Hockney has created for Spoleto festivals; his first appeared on the 1976 Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy.
Our hot take on the poster? We dig it — the bright colors and the manic running around of stick figures is fun, and is probably a fair representation of what we’ll look like, bopping from show to show in just a couple of weeks.
If you want to see a rundown of posters past — a.k.a the ones former editor Chris Haire found to be the most appalling — enjoy the roundup, from 2015’s bong-like image to 2013’s minimalist, err, etch-a-sketch design.
Oh yeah, and get pumped for Spoleto — we are officially two weeks away from kickoff.