One of my favourite Hockney works because of the sensitivity he had towards older works of Japanese landscape painting, such as in Nihonga painting, but using modern methods (Hockney was one of the first successful art world figures to realize the potential in then relatively untested artist grade acrylic paints).
In it he retains his very clean and minimalistic pop art style without trying to mimic an “oriental” depiction of mount Fuji. He actually did the painting as a composite from a floral still life and a post card, a sort of ironic commentary on the touristy commercialism he encountered when travelling to Japan in the 70s.
It’s like he wanted to encounter an orientalist fantasy of the untouched harmonies of the landscape, but found the same modern nowhere land as everywhere else. So instead of doing a piece that would essentially be a “neo-japonism”, he appropriated Mount Fuji, using his own stylistic choices and techniques.
David Hockney(British, 1937-2026)
Mount Fuji and Flowers 1972