1965
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Sculpture Bust Giacometti Lichtenstein Diebenkorn Modern China Zhang Daqian Sanyu Fu Baoshi Hockney Elvis and Liz Bird
See also : Sculpture Bust Giacometti Lichtenstein Diebenkorn Modern China Zhang Daqian Sanyu Fu Baoshi Hockney Elvis and Liz Bird
1965 Le Nez by Giacometti
2021 SOLD for $ 78M by Sotheby's
In his post war nightmares and hallucinations, Alberto Giacometti lost the discrimination between the living and the dead. He is a sculptor : in 1947 he manages to immobilize this ambiguity in plasters. Fragmenting the human organs, he conceives Le Nez, La Main and Tête sur tige. Questioning the beyond in the same year, he creates his existentialist trinity led by L'Homme au doigt.
Le Nez is a full head hanging to a rope within a cage, so that it cannot be perceived as a mere bust. The threadlike posts and bars of the cage are similar as those conceived by him is the 1930s for staging Surrealist figures. Such an existentialist expression of human forms in a cage had a decisive influence on Francis Bacon.
The narwhal tooth shaped straight nose extends far beyond the volume of the cage, providing a fake liberty to the encaged figure. The mouth is wide open for a scream. The very first plaster also had a red painted tongue and a spiral red clown wrap around the nose.
There is no doubt that the fragile balance of Le Nez was very difficult to transfer to bronze. That was done in 1965 by Susse in an edition of 6 plus 2 additional proofs. The head is cast from a replica of the 1949 plaster while the cage had been narrowed in the previous year for a more protruding effect of the nose. The cage is 81 cm high. Small roundels under the four posts assure a stability to that fragile piece.
The number 6/6 was sold for $ 78M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 14.
Le Nez is a full head hanging to a rope within a cage, so that it cannot be perceived as a mere bust. The threadlike posts and bars of the cage are similar as those conceived by him is the 1930s for staging Surrealist figures. Such an existentialist expression of human forms in a cage had a decisive influence on Francis Bacon.
The narwhal tooth shaped straight nose extends far beyond the volume of the cage, providing a fake liberty to the encaged figure. The mouth is wide open for a scream. The very first plaster also had a red painted tongue and a spiral red clown wrap around the nose.
There is no doubt that the fragile balance of Le Nez was very difficult to transfer to bronze. That was done in 1965 by Susse in an edition of 6 plus 2 additional proofs. The head is cast from a replica of the 1949 plaster while the cage had been narrowed in the previous year for a more protruding effect of the nose. The cage is 81 cm high. Small roundels under the four posts assure a stability to that fragile piece.
The number 6/6 was sold for $ 78M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 14.
1965 Recollections of a Visit to Leningrad by Diebenkorn
2023 SOLD for $ 46M by Christie's
Richard 'Dick' Diebenkorn studied and worked in California throughout his career. Student to Still and Rothko, he does not follow their confrontations of colors and prefers the harmony.
A view through a window brings an illusion of proximity. The effect of distance is not necessary, minimizing the topographic details. Painted in 1959, Ocean through the Window was sold for $ 4M by Sotheby's on November 17, 1998.
On June 29, 2020, Sotheby's sold for $ 9M View from a Porch, oil on canvas 177 x 168 cm also painted in 1959, lot 113. The veranda partially hides the foreground of the landscape and its central post brings a symmetry which trivializes the rest of the image.
He admires Matisse's ability to transform a three dimensional space into juxtaposed surfaces on the canvas. In 1912 at Tangiers and in 1914 in Collioure and Paris, Matisse keeps the window and cancels or forgets the landscape.
Diebenkorn is invited by the State Department to visit the Soviet Union in the fall of 1964 as part of the US-USSR cultural exchange program promoted by Kennedy and Khrushchev. He had been a good candidate for that mission because he did not practice abstraction, of which the Soviets were reluctant.
The Hermitage Museum had 60 early paintings and drawings by Matisse, seized in 1917 by the state from the Shchukin collection. Diebenkorn is watching for the first time several masterpieces which he only knew through black and white reproductions. He is dazzled by the significance of these highly experimental works.
Back from Russia in the spring of 1965, he paints in that year Recollections of a Visit to Leningrad, mingling bold geometric planes with reminiscences to Matisse including the window and the floral volutes of the 1908 Desserte rouge (Harmony in Red). On the right side an abstracted shore is painted in bold colors. The area with the volutes is obscured on both sides by an opened window curtain.
This monumental oil on canvas 180 x 210 cm was sold for $ 46M by Christie's on November 9, 2023, lot 4 B.
A view through a window brings an illusion of proximity. The effect of distance is not necessary, minimizing the topographic details. Painted in 1959, Ocean through the Window was sold for $ 4M by Sotheby's on November 17, 1998.
On June 29, 2020, Sotheby's sold for $ 9M View from a Porch, oil on canvas 177 x 168 cm also painted in 1959, lot 113. The veranda partially hides the foreground of the landscape and its central post brings a symmetry which trivializes the rest of the image.
He admires Matisse's ability to transform a three dimensional space into juxtaposed surfaces on the canvas. In 1912 at Tangiers and in 1914 in Collioure and Paris, Matisse keeps the window and cancels or forgets the landscape.
Diebenkorn is invited by the State Department to visit the Soviet Union in the fall of 1964 as part of the US-USSR cultural exchange program promoted by Kennedy and Khrushchev. He had been a good candidate for that mission because he did not practice abstraction, of which the Soviets were reluctant.
The Hermitage Museum had 60 early paintings and drawings by Matisse, seized in 1917 by the state from the Shchukin collection. Diebenkorn is watching for the first time several masterpieces which he only knew through black and white reproductions. He is dazzled by the significance of these highly experimental works.
Back from Russia in the spring of 1965, he paints in that year Recollections of a Visit to Leningrad, mingling bold geometric planes with reminiscences to Matisse including the window and the floral volutes of the 1908 Desserte rouge (Harmony in Red). On the right side an abstracted shore is painted in bold colors. The area with the volutes is obscured on both sides by an opened window curtain.
This monumental oil on canvas 180 x 210 cm was sold for $ 46M by Christie's on November 9, 2023, lot 4 B.
early 1960s Eagle, Rock and Mountain Flowers by Pan Tianshou
2015 SOLD for RMB 280M by China Guardian
Pan Tianshou spent his entire career teaching art. Specialist in ancient Chinese painting, he was director of the National Academy from 1945 to 1947 and then from 1957 until his public humiliation by the Red Guards in 1966.
Since the 1920s, he developed an innovative technique of painting with his fingers to create a wash, which he completes with a brush for a great boldness in the distribution of details. The artist enters his paper placed on the ground to produce works of very large format.
His drawings have an extremely expressive jerky line. For landscapes, he is the painter of summits, with pines shaken by the wind and eagles and crows proud of their domination.
Eagle, Rock and Mountain Flowers is a large size view 182 x 142 cm painted in the early 1960s by Pan Tianshou.
The bird is standing on the edge of a cliff which is half hidden behind a pattern of flowers. From its position, it gazes at the landscape outside the field of view. With its closed wings and its neck tucked off in the shoulders, it looks endangered. A spectacular contrast is applied between the heavy inking of the foliage and the light line drawing of the background.
This undated work undeniably belongs to Pan's period of top artistic maturity just before the brutal termination of his career in 1966 by the Cultural Revolution. It surfaced in 1979, eight years after his vile death in custody.
It was sold for RMB 280M by China Guardian on May 17, 2015, lot 707.
Since the 1920s, he developed an innovative technique of painting with his fingers to create a wash, which he completes with a brush for a great boldness in the distribution of details. The artist enters his paper placed on the ground to produce works of very large format.
His drawings have an extremely expressive jerky line. For landscapes, he is the painter of summits, with pines shaken by the wind and eagles and crows proud of their domination.
Eagle, Rock and Mountain Flowers is a large size view 182 x 142 cm painted in the early 1960s by Pan Tianshou.
The bird is standing on the edge of a cliff which is half hidden behind a pattern of flowers. From its position, it gazes at the landscape outside the field of view. With its closed wings and its neck tucked off in the shoulders, it looks endangered. A spectacular contrast is applied between the heavy inking of the foliage and the light line drawing of the background.
This undated work undeniably belongs to Pan's period of top artistic maturity just before the brutal termination of his career in 1966 by the Cultural Revolution. It surfaced in 1979, eight years after his vile death in custody.
It was sold for RMB 280M by China Guardian on May 17, 2015, lot 707.
FU BAOSHI
1
1964-1965 Chairman Mao's Poems Octavo Volumes
2011 SOLD for RMB 230M by Hanhai
Fu Baoshi was a native of Jiangxi province like Mao Zedong. He used to illustrate Mao's poems by mountain sceneries.
A set of eight views 33 x 46.5 cm executed in 1964-1965 is titled Chairman Mao's Octavo Volumes. It was sold for RMB 230M by Hanhai on November 17, 2011.
A set of eight views 33 x 46.5 cm executed in 1964-1965 is titled Chairman Mao's Octavo Volumes. It was sold for RMB 230M by Hanhai on November 17, 2011.
2
1965 Maoshan Majesty
2017 SOLD for RMB 187M by Poly
Fu Baoshi was not only the imaginative illustrator of old legends. Throughout his career, he also seeks the quintessence of the landscape, in all seasons, in all weather. He expresses snow, rain, mist, based on many sketches taken in the field.
In 1965, in a commission from the political committee of Jiangsu Province, he visits the site of Maoshan, southwest of Nanjing. This mountain is a high place of Taoism. Reforestation was initiated in 1960, in commemoration of the cantonment of Chen Yi's army during the Sino-Japanese War.
This 106 x 276 cm ink painting, completed in June 1965, includes tiny structures that attest to the civilization brought by Maoism : villages, factories and bridges in the plain, houses on the peaks. It was sold for RMB 187M by Poly on June 5, 2017, lot 2245. The image is shared by China Daily in their post sale report.
Fu Baoshi died three months later from a brain hemorrhage at the age of 61. His monumental panorama of Maoshan had been his last completed work.
In 1965, in a commission from the political committee of Jiangsu Province, he visits the site of Maoshan, southwest of Nanjing. This mountain is a high place of Taoism. Reforestation was initiated in 1960, in commemoration of the cantonment of Chen Yi's army during the Sino-Japanese War.
This 106 x 276 cm ink painting, completed in June 1965, includes tiny structures that attest to the civilization brought by Maoism : villages, factories and bridges in the plain, houses on the peaks. It was sold for RMB 187M by Poly on June 5, 2017, lot 2245. The image is shared by China Daily in their post sale report.
Fu Baoshi died three months later from a brain hemorrhage at the age of 61. His monumental panorama of Maoshan had been his last completed work.
1963-1965 Silver Liz by Warhol
2015 SOLD for $ 28M by Christie's
Andy Warhol was a clever businessman of his own art. In 1963, when he executed his series of Liz Taylor pictures, he made it as multiple single paintings of the same design instead of positioning many images on one canvas. A silver Liz was sold for £ 6.7M by Christie's on June 30, 2010.
He maintained however the illusion of wall advertising by exhibiting side by side the similar elements of the group. Afterwards each artwork could be sold separately by the owner of the set.
The Silver Liz diptych was sold by Sotheby's for $ 18.3M on May 11, 2010, and by Christie's for $ 28M on May 11, 2015, lot 19A.
This specimen has a specific history. It was included in the exhibition of ten Silver Liz 101 x 101 cm at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in September-October 1963. When he prepared another exhibition to be held in Philadelphia in 1965, Andy recuperated this specific copy and flanked it on its left with a blank canvas of same size and same silver shade.
In this new configuration which has never been disassembled, the Silver Liz diptych remained a tribute to Liz while also imitating the wide screens of the movie theaters.
He maintained however the illusion of wall advertising by exhibiting side by side the similar elements of the group. Afterwards each artwork could be sold separately by the owner of the set.
The Silver Liz diptych was sold by Sotheby's for $ 18.3M on May 11, 2010, and by Christie's for $ 28M on May 11, 2015, lot 19A.
This specimen has a specific history. It was included in the exhibition of ten Silver Liz 101 x 101 cm at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in September-October 1963. When he prepared another exhibition to be held in Philadelphia in 1965, Andy recuperated this specific copy and flanked it on its left with a blank canvas of same size and same silver shade.
In this new configuration which has never been disassembled, the Silver Liz diptych remained a tribute to Liz while also imitating the wide screens of the movie theaters.
1965 Brushstrokes by LICHTENSTEIN
Intro
Roy Lichtenstein had questioned the fundamental principles of painting by appropriating images from the comics, coloring large surfaces on his canvases with Ben-day dots and transforming a masterpiece into a reference for derision.
He finds in the comics the most varied inspiration. A book entitled The Painter was published in October 1964 : a furious artist cancels with a red cross a portrait he had just painted. The image shows dripping, single drops and even the fraying when the paint becomes rarer on the bristles of the brush at the end of the raging gesture.
Roy uses this theme in the next year while removing the text that expressed the artist's madness. His first painting simply titled Brushstroke is close to the original drawing with hand and brush in the foreground. He goes further : is a painting anything else than a set of brush strokes on a surface ? In the rest of his series he removes the hand and the brush.
His Brushstrokes series is made up of fifteen oil and acrylic works on canvas executed in 1965 and 1966. One or more brushstrokes have left scars of white, red, yellow or green paint disproportionately magnified over a blue background built with his signature Ben-Day dots.
Any painter would want their brush stroke to be perfect. Roy shows that it is not. Defects include furrows, fringes, transparencies, drips and spots.
Lichtenstein's Brushstrokes do not include any direct narrative. This opaque paint applied with great energy can however hide another figure. With his usual humor close to self-mockery, Roy does not omit to state that the meticulous execution of his own painting has nothing to do with this violent trace. No one is inspecting a painting in such a magnification. The doubt then comes on the constitution of the angles, by a rotation of the wrist or by the resumption of a new stroke.
Going much deeper than the author of the comics Roy reaches the quantum element of painting. He moves in the same line as Jasper Johns or Frank Stella for whom the theme is less important than the process for building the artwork.
By transforming his Brushstrokes into sculptures three decades later Roy completes this ingenious journey in the mockery of painting. After all, if we look for a parallel in other artistic actions, is cinema anything else than a projection of light through a scrolling sequence of colored filters ?
He finds in the comics the most varied inspiration. A book entitled The Painter was published in October 1964 : a furious artist cancels with a red cross a portrait he had just painted. The image shows dripping, single drops and even the fraying when the paint becomes rarer on the bristles of the brush at the end of the raging gesture.
Roy uses this theme in the next year while removing the text that expressed the artist's madness. His first painting simply titled Brushstroke is close to the original drawing with hand and brush in the foreground. He goes further : is a painting anything else than a set of brush strokes on a surface ? In the rest of his series he removes the hand and the brush.
His Brushstrokes series is made up of fifteen oil and acrylic works on canvas executed in 1965 and 1966. One or more brushstrokes have left scars of white, red, yellow or green paint disproportionately magnified over a blue background built with his signature Ben-Day dots.
Any painter would want their brush stroke to be perfect. Roy shows that it is not. Defects include furrows, fringes, transparencies, drips and spots.
Lichtenstein's Brushstrokes do not include any direct narrative. This opaque paint applied with great energy can however hide another figure. With his usual humor close to self-mockery, Roy does not omit to state that the meticulous execution of his own painting has nothing to do with this violent trace. No one is inspecting a painting in such a magnification. The doubt then comes on the constitution of the angles, by a rotation of the wrist or by the resumption of a new stroke.
Going much deeper than the author of the comics Roy reaches the quantum element of painting. He moves in the same line as Jasper Johns or Frank Stella for whom the theme is less important than the process for building the artwork.
By transforming his Brushstrokes into sculptures three decades later Roy completes this ingenious journey in the mockery of painting. After all, if we look for a parallel in other artistic actions, is cinema anything else than a projection of light through a scrolling sequence of colored filters ?
1
White
2020 SOLD for $ 25.4M by Sotheby's
White Brushstroke I is one of the very first in the series. It features three overlapping segments that make up a sort of Z or N with rounded corners.
This oil and Magna on canvas 122 x 142 cm was sold for $ 25.4M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on June 29, 2020, lot 107. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This oil and Magna on canvas 122 x 142 cm was sold for $ 25.4M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on June 29, 2020, lot 107. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
2
Red and White
2017 SOLD for $ 28M by Christie's
Red and White Brushstrokes features two wide stripes reproducing beside their friction the avatars of the original gesture, slightly rising. It is probably not by chance that the whole image resembles a damaged flowing flag. Their drips that look like handles, perhaps as a wink for Jasper Johns.
This canvas 122 x 173 cm painted in 1965 was sold for $ 28M by Christie's on May 17, 2017, lot 57 B.
This canvas 122 x 173 cm painted in 1965 was sold for $ 28M by Christie's on May 17, 2017, lot 57 B.
1965 Nu by Sanyu
2019 SOLD for HK$ 198M by Sotheby's
The female nude is a favorite theme to Sanyu. His art is profoundly authentic but integrates also within the Art Déco trends of his youth. The drawings are often erotic but the oil paintings are studies of forms with a deliberately minimalist palette, same as in his potted plants and animals of the same period.
Sanyu was not tempted by total abstraction. The flesh is contained in a black outline which thickens over time. Under the influence of photography, his compositions are freed from the three dimensional space, displaying from the early 1930s an exaggerated preponderance to the legs and narrowing the head.
Throughout his life, Sanyu was exercising his creativity without succeeding in pushing his career. In 1964 the project of a solo exhibition at the National Museum of History in Taipei brought hope for an international recognition. He sent 42 artworks, including a new 47 x 50 cm Nu in oil on paper.
The project is going badly and Sanyu has no longer access to his own works. In April 1965 he compensates for this frustration by making a larger version of his Nu, an oil on masonite 123 x 135 cm. The simplicity of the forms and the monochrome body on a white background bring a fine readability to this work, like a wall poster.
The nude woman is reclining with her legs in the foreground. The right leg is raised up to the top of the image like a rocky peak in a traditional Chinese landscape. The breasts and the head form a horizon of hills. This metaphor is perceived more clearly when we consider the swaying of the raised leg and the apparent distance of the head.
Inscribed with a nostalgic autograph comment dated April 1965, this 123 x 135 cm oil on masonite may be considered as his ultimate work. A pathetic autograph inscription on the back of the masonite testifies that the aging artist felt with this composition the maturity which he had been seeking for several decades and regretted the time lost during the years of poverty.
To compensate for Sanyu's disillusionment, Natacha and Etienne Lévy organize a private exhibition in their residence in Paris from December 17 to 21, 1965. The invitation is illustrated with that masterpiece.
This ultimate Nu was sold for HK $ 198M from a lower estimate of HK $ 150M by Sotheby's in October 5, 2019, lot 1029. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The Lévy family preserved photos of their event. Their friend Sanyu appears in a photo in front of another Nu of the same woman, painted in the same minimalist style and to the same scale, with an almost monochrome skin within thick black outlines over a blank background.
In this image, both legs are raised and the left foot is posed like a finial on the right knee. The outline of legs and buttocks now form a square, in an ultimate Chinese refinement that evokes yin and yang. The breasts and head now appear through a triangular opening between the legs. This undated work is almost certainly in the follow of the April 1965 version.
This oil on masonite 125 x 95 cm was sold for HK $ 170M by Sotheby's on October 5, 2020, lot 1016.
Sanyu died accidentally in his workshop in August 1966.
Sanyu was not tempted by total abstraction. The flesh is contained in a black outline which thickens over time. Under the influence of photography, his compositions are freed from the three dimensional space, displaying from the early 1930s an exaggerated preponderance to the legs and narrowing the head.
Throughout his life, Sanyu was exercising his creativity without succeeding in pushing his career. In 1964 the project of a solo exhibition at the National Museum of History in Taipei brought hope for an international recognition. He sent 42 artworks, including a new 47 x 50 cm Nu in oil on paper.
The project is going badly and Sanyu has no longer access to his own works. In April 1965 he compensates for this frustration by making a larger version of his Nu, an oil on masonite 123 x 135 cm. The simplicity of the forms and the monochrome body on a white background bring a fine readability to this work, like a wall poster.
The nude woman is reclining with her legs in the foreground. The right leg is raised up to the top of the image like a rocky peak in a traditional Chinese landscape. The breasts and the head form a horizon of hills. This metaphor is perceived more clearly when we consider the swaying of the raised leg and the apparent distance of the head.
Inscribed with a nostalgic autograph comment dated April 1965, this 123 x 135 cm oil on masonite may be considered as his ultimate work. A pathetic autograph inscription on the back of the masonite testifies that the aging artist felt with this composition the maturity which he had been seeking for several decades and regretted the time lost during the years of poverty.
To compensate for Sanyu's disillusionment, Natacha and Etienne Lévy organize a private exhibition in their residence in Paris from December 17 to 21, 1965. The invitation is illustrated with that masterpiece.
This ultimate Nu was sold for HK $ 198M from a lower estimate of HK $ 150M by Sotheby's in October 5, 2019, lot 1029. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The Lévy family preserved photos of their event. Their friend Sanyu appears in a photo in front of another Nu of the same woman, painted in the same minimalist style and to the same scale, with an almost monochrome skin within thick black outlines over a blank background.
In this image, both legs are raised and the left foot is posed like a finial on the right knee. The outline of legs and buttocks now form a square, in an ultimate Chinese refinement that evokes yin and yang. The breasts and head now appear through a triangular opening between the legs. This undated work is almost certainly in the follow of the April 1965 version.
This oil on masonite 125 x 95 cm was sold for HK $ 170M by Sotheby's on October 5, 2020, lot 1016.
Sanyu died accidentally in his workshop in August 1966.
1965 California by Hockney
2024 SOLD for £ 18.7M by Christie's
David Hockney finishes his art studies in London in 1962. He admires the false childishness of Dubuffet's graphics.
Eager for exotic sensations, he got a mission from Sunday Times magazine for a trip to Egypt in 1963. Excited by local solutions to the problem of water, he painted on his return a Great Pyramid at Giza with Broken Head from Thebes where the foreground is invaded by a water pipe. This 183 x 183 cm oil on canvas was sold for £ 3.5M by Christie's on February 13, 2013.
Made in the same year, Two Men in a Shower is an early representation of a couple of naked men.
In his early art David Hockney acted deliberately as a rebel. His exceedingly naive figures are a response to the abstract minimalism of his friends Kenneth Noland and Frank Stella. The use of cylinders, spheres and cones pushes to the absurd the statements by Cézanne on the geometrical construction of still lifes.
Until 1967 the homosexual act will remain a crime in the United Kingdom. To become a leading gay artist, Hockney prefers to leave. In 1964 he arrives in New York where he gets imbued with pop art.
His plane flies over San Bernardino. His first vision of California is the pattern of pools hidden behind the bungalows, which allow the residents to discreetly practice all forms of hedonism under the bright sun. He is enchanted by the atmosphere of freedom, the apparent ease of life, and the tanned bodies of half naked young men at the pool and on the beach.
In his early style, a view of Different kinds of water pouring into a swimming pool located in Santa Monica, acrylic on canvas 183 x 162 cm painted in 1965, was sold for £ 2.7M by Sotheby's on March 5, 2019, lot 50. As in the Pyramids the pipe has the main role in this naive composition without people. Its water flows down to the floor of the pool. In the distance a row of trees benefits from the irrigation.
Back in England in 1965, Hockney begins with the theme of the Californian swimming pools as a bliss offered to couples of men, with now the realism required for the contemplation of bodies.
California, acrylic on canvas 168 x 200 cm, features two naked men, each of them floating on his stomachs on an air mattress. The pool has a blue background with the moving surface represented without depth effect by wavy lines in the style of the Hourloupe series started by Dubuffet in 1962.
California was sold for £ 18.7M by Christie's on March 7, 2024, lot 24.
Eager for exotic sensations, he got a mission from Sunday Times magazine for a trip to Egypt in 1963. Excited by local solutions to the problem of water, he painted on his return a Great Pyramid at Giza with Broken Head from Thebes where the foreground is invaded by a water pipe. This 183 x 183 cm oil on canvas was sold for £ 3.5M by Christie's on February 13, 2013.
Made in the same year, Two Men in a Shower is an early representation of a couple of naked men.
In his early art David Hockney acted deliberately as a rebel. His exceedingly naive figures are a response to the abstract minimalism of his friends Kenneth Noland and Frank Stella. The use of cylinders, spheres and cones pushes to the absurd the statements by Cézanne on the geometrical construction of still lifes.
Until 1967 the homosexual act will remain a crime in the United Kingdom. To become a leading gay artist, Hockney prefers to leave. In 1964 he arrives in New York where he gets imbued with pop art.
His plane flies over San Bernardino. His first vision of California is the pattern of pools hidden behind the bungalows, which allow the residents to discreetly practice all forms of hedonism under the bright sun. He is enchanted by the atmosphere of freedom, the apparent ease of life, and the tanned bodies of half naked young men at the pool and on the beach.
In his early style, a view of Different kinds of water pouring into a swimming pool located in Santa Monica, acrylic on canvas 183 x 162 cm painted in 1965, was sold for £ 2.7M by Sotheby's on March 5, 2019, lot 50. As in the Pyramids the pipe has the main role in this naive composition without people. Its water flows down to the floor of the pool. In the distance a row of trees benefits from the irrigation.
Back in England in 1965, Hockney begins with the theme of the Californian swimming pools as a bliss offered to couples of men, with now the realism required for the contemplation of bodies.
California, acrylic on canvas 168 x 200 cm, features two naked men, each of them floating on his stomachs on an air mattress. The pool has a blue background with the moving surface represented without depth effect by wavy lines in the style of the Hourloupe series started by Dubuffet in 1962.
California was sold for £ 18.7M by Christie's on March 7, 2024, lot 24.
