Art review Joyous pilgrimage of colour in Hockney's biggest ever show

It's that time of year. Blossom is on the trees, the air is warming up and David Hockney has a show.

- Jonathan Jones

Five years ago he spent lockdown in his Normandy garden painting the spring, bud by bud, sharing his iPad pictures with whoever was in his address book, like the last artist on Earth sending out signals of hope. The slogan he coined then - "Do remember they can't cancel the spring" - is now written over the entrance to the Fondation Louis Vuitton, as urgent as it was during Covid.

The iPad paintings are here, as well as actual oils and acrylics of Normandy, including ravishing trees in blossom that pay homage to Van Gogh. In his latest self-portrait Hockney sits in his London garden and beside him sprout daffodils.

He has returned at 87 as he did at 82 to show us how beautiful the world is in spite of those who try to ruin it. His eye for nature is what links his art now with early works.

His 1968 portrait of Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy is a confident assertion of gay partnership and a meeting of generations: 60s star Hockney depicts the 1930s author of Goodbye to Berlin. But I can't take my eyes off the fruit bowl with its abundance of yellow and orange bulging natural forms.

Hockney never undervalues the simple things - one captivating 1967 canvas is called Some Neat Cushions. Their neatness makes you happy. For the other thing that connects his art across nearly seven decades is the pleasure principle.