The gift that keeps on giving

5:00AM Thursday April 10, 2008

David Hockney has urged his creative colleagues to give generously to Britain's museums and galleries as he donated his largest-ever painting to the Tate, describing it as an artist's "duty" to give back to public institutions.

Speaking at Tate Britain beside a segment of his 12m-wide painting of a Yorkshire landscape in spring, Bigger Trees Near Warter, Hockney said he felt a responsibility to donate to galleries, particularly to Tate, which was among the first to buy his works in the early 1960s when he was fast emerging as one of Britain's biggest creative talents.

Admitting he was considering giving another piece of his work to the same gallery, Hockney said: "I think it's the duty of artists, once they have become successful, to give. I felt the Tate has supported me ... I felt that is what I should do. The Tate asked me two years ago about giving things. I thought, 'If I'm going to give something, I want to give them something really good'."

The painting, which would sell for millions on the open market, spanned a whole wall at the Royal Academy when it was unveiled at last year's Summer Exhibition and will be exhibited at the Tate later in the year. The artist has also donated two photographic renderings of the painting on paper sheets in the same dimensions.

---