The Sarasota Art Museum is exhibiting a photographic drawing by the late David Hockney, titled "Inside It Opens Up As Well," as part of its "Something Borrowed, Something New" exhibition. The work is on loan because no Southwest Florida museum holds a Hockney in its permanent collection, as his paintings command record prices—his "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" sold for $90 million in 2018. The exhibition highlights Hockney's innovative use of photomontage and digital manipulation to challenge traditional perspective.
This exhibition matters because it brings the work of a trailblazing queer artist to a region where his art is otherwise inaccessible due to cost. Hockney, who died in 2026, is celebrated for normalizing queer joy and intimacy through his depictions of friends, lovers, and everyday life at a time when homosexuality was criminalized. The show also underscores Hockney's enduring influence on contemporary art, from pop art to digital experimentation, and his legacy as a relentless innovator who redefined visual representation across seven decades.