Augmented Reality companion app for The Arrival of Spring exhibition

Client: David Hockney and Studio

Platform: iOS/iPad, Android

Exhibition: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 (Royal Academy, 2021)

In the midst of a pandemic, David Hockney captured the unfolding of spring on his iPad, creating 116 new and optimistic works in praise of the natural world. As these works prepared for exhibition at the Royal Academy, we were asked to extend them into the immersive realm.

Hockney AR is the official augmented reality companion for The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 exhibition and catalogue. Using marker-based AR, the app recognises images in the catalogue (and works in the gallery spaces) to display animated versions of the paintings – either replayed stroke-by-stroke as Hockney created them, enhanced with animated effects like rain, or as animated pieces created from the iPad paintings.

David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020: virtual tour

The brief

The Royal Academy exhibition needed a digital companion that would:

• Work primarily with the physical exhibition catalogue as an AR trigger
• Also function in the gallery spaces when viewing the works in situ
• Bring iPad paintings to life through augmented reality in multiple ways
• Support animated playback showing the creation process stroke-by-stroke
• Include animated effects and animation created from the paintings
• Be accessible to a wide public audience on consumer devices

The challenge was making the AR experience feel natural and reliable – avoiding the frustrations common to early AR apps – while staying true to the spirit of the original iPad works.

What we did

We developed native AR applications for iOS/iPad and Android, using marker-based image recognition to anchor animated content to catalogue pages and gallery works.

• Marker-based AR triggered by catalogue images (primarily) and gallery installations
• Three animation modes: paintings replayed as created, paintings with animated effects (like rain), and animated pieces created from the iPad paintings
• Stroke-by-stroke playback recreating the drawing process for selected works
• Support for multiple artworks across the collection
• Cross-platform deployment (iOS and Android)
• Optimised for consumer devices and both catalogue and exhibition environments

The app draws on our existing iPad tooling work for the studio, where we generate high-quality animated exports of the painting process and support animated effects creation. Hockney AR made those animations viewable in AR, overlaid onto the printed catalogue or gallery works.

Watch the artist's iPad paintings spring to life in Augmented Reality

Reception and use

The app launched alongside the Royal Academy exhibition in 2021 and remains available on both app stores. It continues to be used with the exhibition catalogue, bringing the iPad works to life wherever the catalogue is viewed.

The AR experience allows viewers to engage with Hockney's work in uniquely immediate ways – watching paintings emerge stroke by stroke as the artist created them, seeing them enhanced with animated effects, or experiencing animated pieces derived from the original iPad paintings. All anchored to the pages of the catalogue or the works in the gallery.

Broader context

Hockney AR was one outcome of our ongoing work with David Hockney and his studio. Since 2018, we've maintained his custom iPad painting app – Hockney Brushes – which enables not just painting but ultra-high-resolution export and animated playback.

That tooling work has supported major exhibitions including A Year in Normandie (2021–22), Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) at Lightroom, London (2023), and David Hockney 25 at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2025).

More about our work: David Hockney – iPad App Development.