Artist and group of journalists tell jokes to keep spirits up before Van Gogh Museum show

David Hockney was rescued by Amsterdam firefighters and the editor of a British tabloid after being trapped in an overcrowded lift with journalists including the BBC’s James Naughtie.

The incident happened when the 81-year-old artist was heading for a cigarette, before being interviewed for the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Too many people tried to get into the lift at Amsterdam’s Conservatorium hotel – not helped by some journalists who were carrying heavy cameras and microphones – which then became stuck.

One witness said little then happened until Geordie Greig, editor of the Daily Mail, took charge and got the hotel to call firefighters. He also managed to squeeze a fold-up chair and some water through a gap.

After about 30 minutes, Hockney and the others, who told jokes to keep spirits up, were released.

Hockney – cigarette in hand and desperate for a smoke – cheerfully posed for photographs with his rescuers afterwards. He also asked for a cup of tea.

James Naughtie (@naughtiej) Could you make this up? Stuck in a lift in Amsterdam with David Hockney. Rescued by firemen, thanks to the editor of the Daily Mail. Very strange ,but true.

The artist was in the Netherlands for the opening of a new show at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam exploring the parallels between himself and the Dutch painter.

Before getting stuck in the lift Hockney had spoken about his passion for Van Gogh and the next chapter in his life beginning this weekend, which will be in France.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest David Hockney, cigarette in hand, poses with his rescuers after he was stuck in an elevator in the Conservatorium Hotel in Amsterdam for almost half an hour. Photograph: Robin Utrecht/EPA

His enthusiasm was infectious. “I’m just going to Normandy because we’ve got a house there,” he said. “It is surrounded by trees, it is going to be marvellous for me because I’ve got a new location and I’ll draw it. I can’t think of anything better in life than watching the spring happen in Normandy in 2019, I mean what better thing can I do? I can’t think of anything. Van Gogh would love it.”

Hockney returned to his adopted home city of Los Angeles after several years painting the Yorkshire Wolds. Asked if he might return to paint Britain, he was dismissive. “I’ve no plans. Not at the moment. I think France is a lot more smoker-friendly … I take that into consideration as well.”

The artist said he was taking his inspiration from the Bayeux tapestry. He hopes to create a moving picture where the viewer does the moving. “If I paint it right, you will walk past it down a kind of corridor,” he said. “It is better to see it that way… if you think about it, the arrival of spring is too slow for a movie.”

The new Hockney show, which opens to the public on Saturday, explores how Van Gogh influenced Hockney, and how they share an artistic attitude, a similar way of looking.

Hockney recalled being 16 years old in 1954, studying at Bradford art school and travelling by bus to see the Van Gogh show in Manchester. He was struck by the vibrancy of colour and how much paint was being used.

“I thought, he’s quite a rich artist because he could use two whole tubes of blue to paint the sky. Not even the teachers at the art school could afford that.

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“It was the colour I remember. I had never seen paintings like that before really. Real ones, not looking in a book,” Hockney said. “At the art school everyone just painted grey pictures and black Bradford. There was not much colour at all. At first I probably thought he had exaggerated colour and now I don’t at all.”

Van Gogh had a way of looking which offered all of us lessons, he said. “He could see space very clearly. He hated photography. I’m a bit similar actually – you must look at the world. Van Gogh is telling us that there is a marvellous world in your own back garden, you’ve just to look at it, really look, I think that’s his message.

“It’s thrilling if you really look, the world is beautiful actually, it is, but you have to really look at it.”

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The Amsterdam show includes paintings from Hockney’s time in the north of England, including the colossal The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 which is 9.75 metres wide and was gifted by the artist to the Centre Pompidou in Paris. There are also sketchbooks, iPad drawings, videos and what Hockney calls photographic drawings.

• Hockney – Van Gogh: The Joy of Nature at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum from 1 March to 26 May 2019