David HOCKNEY (born in 1937)
See also : UK II Groups Bouquet Cities Los Angeles Landscape Midi
Chronology : 1966 1969 1970-1979 1971 1972 1980-1989 1980 1988 1990-1999 1996
Chronology : 1966 1969 1970-1979 1971 1972 1980-1989 1980 1988 1990-1999 1996
1966 Hidden Hedonism in California
2020 SOLD for £ 24M including premium
In 1964 the young David Hockney searches for a Heaven on earth. 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.
Back in California in 1966, David is very excited by an instantaneous color photo on the cover of a swimming pool construction manual. The foreground is a diving board. The water is agitated by the splash that has just been caused by an invisible diver.
The artist copies the photo into a first painted version, A Little Splash, 40 x 50 cm. The painting liberates the theme from its documentary aspect. This scene where no character is left visible symbolizes with much more power the joy of living. The four edges of the canvas are not painted, in order to imitate the framing of a photo.
The effect is spectacular. David painstakingly executes two large acrylics, The Splash, 183 x 183 cm, before the end of the year, and A Bigger Splash, 242 x 244 cm, in the following year. The artist later had fun reminding that he spent two weeks expressing a splash that could not last more than two seconds.
The Splash was sold for £ 2.9M including premium by Sotheby's on June 21, 2006, a very high price for this artist at that time, and is estimated £ 20M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 11, lot 16. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Hockney offers in his art an interpretation of his fantasy, without seeking realism. For example, the horizon remains inspired by the photographic model but is extended through the bungalow without it being possible to decide whether it is a perspective or a reflection. A similar surreal illusion appears in a work from the same period, Beverly Hills Housewife, sold for $ 7.9M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2009.
A minimalist architecture better represents Californian homes. The roof in The Splash, still in conformance with the photo from the swimming pool marketing, is indeed too classic. It will be removed in the Bigger Splash and the BH Housewife paintings.
Back in California in 1966, David is very excited by an instantaneous color photo on the cover of a swimming pool construction manual. The foreground is a diving board. The water is agitated by the splash that has just been caused by an invisible diver.
The artist copies the photo into a first painted version, A Little Splash, 40 x 50 cm. The painting liberates the theme from its documentary aspect. This scene where no character is left visible symbolizes with much more power the joy of living. The four edges of the canvas are not painted, in order to imitate the framing of a photo.
The effect is spectacular. David painstakingly executes two large acrylics, The Splash, 183 x 183 cm, before the end of the year, and A Bigger Splash, 242 x 244 cm, in the following year. The artist later had fun reminding that he spent two weeks expressing a splash that could not last more than two seconds.
The Splash was sold for £ 2.9M including premium by Sotheby's on June 21, 2006, a very high price for this artist at that time, and is estimated £ 20M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 11, lot 16. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Hockney offers in his art an interpretation of his fantasy, without seeking realism. For example, the horizon remains inspired by the photographic model but is extended through the bungalow without it being possible to decide whether it is a perspective or a reflection. A similar surreal illusion appears in a work from the same period, Beverly Hills Housewife, sold for $ 7.9M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2009.
A minimalist architecture better represents Californian homes. The roof in The Splash, still in conformance with the photo from the swimming pool marketing, is indeed too classic. It will be removed in the Bigger Splash and the BH Housewife paintings.
1969 Curator and Partner
2019 SOLD for £ 38M including premium
Looking for sexual freedom, David Hockney arrives in California in 1964. The easy life nevertheless does not answer his questioning about communication within a couple.
Between 1968 and 1977 he makes double portraits in very large format, 214 x 305 cm. He alternates between homosexual and heterosexual couples and ends the series with his own parents, clearly assessing that his concern is no longer sex but dialogue. The sitters are most often identified in the title and are very recognizable.
Invariably the two characters are distant from each other with a deliberately orthogonal gazing. In this strange intimacy, the painter is an invisible social voyeur.
Installed again in London in 1968, he does not neglect America. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is preparing a major exhibition that will reveal post-war American art to the general public. The curator of this important cultural operation is the highly influential Henry Geldzahler.
Hockney arrives in Geldzahler's living room in Manhattan with his sketchbook, polaroid camera and flu. Back in his studio in London, he paints in 1969 'Henry Geldzahler and Christopher Scott'. This acrylic on canvas will be sold by Christie's in London on March 6, lot 8. The December 17 press release announces an estimate in excess of £ 30M.
The two men could not be more dissimilar and yet their life as a couple is sustainable. Robust and confident in himself, Geldzahler is comfortably seated in the middle of a beautiful sofa worthy of the greatest Art Deco collections. On the right, his young partner is standing, dressed in a raincoat too big for him and as stiff as the floor lamp. The scene is located by the skyscrapers beyond the small window.
Between 1968 and 1977 he makes double portraits in very large format, 214 x 305 cm. He alternates between homosexual and heterosexual couples and ends the series with his own parents, clearly assessing that his concern is no longer sex but dialogue. The sitters are most often identified in the title and are very recognizable.
Invariably the two characters are distant from each other with a deliberately orthogonal gazing. In this strange intimacy, the painter is an invisible social voyeur.
Installed again in London in 1968, he does not neglect America. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is preparing a major exhibition that will reveal post-war American art to the general public. The curator of this important cultural operation is the highly influential Henry Geldzahler.
Hockney arrives in Geldzahler's living room in Manhattan with his sketchbook, polaroid camera and flu. Back in his studio in London, he paints in 1969 'Henry Geldzahler and Christopher Scott'. This acrylic on canvas will be sold by Christie's in London on March 6, lot 8. The December 17 press release announces an estimate in excess of £ 30M.
The two men could not be more dissimilar and yet their life as a couple is sustainable. Robust and confident in himself, Geldzahler is comfortably seated in the middle of a beautiful sofa worthy of the greatest Art Deco collections. On the right, his young partner is standing, dressed in a raincoat too big for him and as stiff as the floor lamp. The scene is located by the skyscrapers beyond the small window.
1971 Estrangement
2019 SOLD for $ 29.5M including premium
In 1966 Peter Schlesinger is attending a drawing class in Los Angeles. For this session, the teacher is David Hockney, an eccentric Brit with a tomato red suit, cardboard glasses and a terrible Yorkshire accent. It's love at first sight.
Their life as a couple lasts several years, with social gatherings and travels. The age difference is too much and Peter needs new adventures. They start arguing.
In February 1971 the couple rents a hotel room in Marrakech. David sketches his friend, sometimes from behind, on the large sunny terrace. in the following month, back in his studio, David feels that Peter escapes him. He paints Sur la Terrasse (the title is in French), which he will finish during the summer.
Sur la Terrasse is a staging in three successive distances in the manner of Bonnard's terraces. In the background, the morning sun bathes the lush vegetation. The middle stage is the terrace on which Peter, seen from behind, is standing and looks at the garden. The foreground is the opening of the window from where we imagine that David is observing Peter.
At this time David works in the presence of Jack Hazan for preparing a biopic. The moviemaker has thus the chance to attend during the long period when the artist cannot overcome his first heartbreak. Hazan will also record in 1972 the preparation of Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) on the theme of Peter's interest in another man.
Sur la Terrasse had not been displayed to the public since 1973. This 275 x 214 cm acrylic on canvas is estimated $ 25M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 9 B. Portrait of an artist was sold for $ 90M including premium by Christie's on November 15, 2018. The biopic A Bigger Splash was released in 1974.
Their life as a couple lasts several years, with social gatherings and travels. The age difference is too much and Peter needs new adventures. They start arguing.
In February 1971 the couple rents a hotel room in Marrakech. David sketches his friend, sometimes from behind, on the large sunny terrace. in the following month, back in his studio, David feels that Peter escapes him. He paints Sur la Terrasse (the title is in French), which he will finish during the summer.
Sur la Terrasse is a staging in three successive distances in the manner of Bonnard's terraces. In the background, the morning sun bathes the lush vegetation. The middle stage is the terrace on which Peter, seen from behind, is standing and looks at the garden. The foreground is the opening of the window from where we imagine that David is observing Peter.
At this time David works in the presence of Jack Hazan for preparing a biopic. The moviemaker has thus the chance to attend during the long period when the artist cannot overcome his first heartbreak. Hazan will also record in 1972 the preparation of Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) on the theme of Peter's interest in another man.
Sur la Terrasse had not been displayed to the public since 1973. This 275 x 214 cm acrylic on canvas is estimated $ 25M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 9 B. Portrait of an artist was sold for $ 90M including premium by Christie's on November 15, 2018. The biopic A Bigger Splash was released in 1974.
1971 Conversation with the Tulips
2020 SOLD for £ 12.9M including premium
David Hockney is back from California in 1968. In the last months of his stay, he had developed a new specialty, the realistic portraiture or, in his own words, naturalistic. He chooses his models among the promoters of culture. When they are in pairs, man and woman or couple of men, they do not communicate with each other.
Hockney modernizes the art of portraiture. The characters are life-size, and often strictly in profile. The furnishings are contemporary. The line is sharp and precise and the colors are clear and bright.
His reputation is now assured. In 1971 he works on a commission from the Royal Opera House in London to celebrate the retirement of Sir David Webster, the General Administrator who succeeded in bringing to the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera a worldwide reputation.
The artist needs to know his models well for making their portraits. He did not know Webster, whom he meets on several occasions for this project. This is not working and the date of the ceremony is approaching. As for a theatrical setting, Hockney transposes the figure of Webster to his studio and sits him on his Mies van der Rohe chair.
The designer had been photographed in 1964 on a similar chair. He was smoking a cigar in front of a table with an ashtray on it. Hockney does not make Webster smoking and replaces the ashtray with a large bouquet of tulips in a pot, painted with great realism. The character is stiff and unoccupied. He deliberately ignores this flowerpot which personifies the artist by symbolizing his abortive efforts for an empathic communication.
The work meets the needs of the Opera House and is inaugurated in the presence of the old man, who dies a few weeks later. After this psychologically chilling portrait, Hockney refuses that sort of order.
Cultural organizations are hit hard by the 2020 health crisis. The Royal Opera House is in dire need of money to maintain its activities. Hockney's Portrait of Webster, acrylic on canvas 153 x 185 cm, is estimated £ 11M for sale by Christie's in London on October 22, lot 108.
Hockney modernizes the art of portraiture. The characters are life-size, and often strictly in profile. The furnishings are contemporary. The line is sharp and precise and the colors are clear and bright.
His reputation is now assured. In 1971 he works on a commission from the Royal Opera House in London to celebrate the retirement of Sir David Webster, the General Administrator who succeeded in bringing to the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera a worldwide reputation.
The artist needs to know his models well for making their portraits. He did not know Webster, whom he meets on several occasions for this project. This is not working and the date of the ceremony is approaching. As for a theatrical setting, Hockney transposes the figure of Webster to his studio and sits him on his Mies van der Rohe chair.
The designer had been photographed in 1964 on a similar chair. He was smoking a cigar in front of a table with an ashtray on it. Hockney does not make Webster smoking and replaces the ashtray with a large bouquet of tulips in a pot, painted with great realism. The character is stiff and unoccupied. He deliberately ignores this flowerpot which personifies the artist by symbolizing his abortive efforts for an empathic communication.
The work meets the needs of the Opera House and is inaugurated in the presence of the old man, who dies a few weeks later. After this psychologically chilling portrait, Hockney refuses that sort of order.
Cultural organizations are hit hard by the 2020 health crisis. The Royal Opera House is in dire need of money to maintain its activities. Hockney's Portrait of Webster, acrylic on canvas 153 x 185 cm, is estimated £ 11M for sale by Christie's in London on October 22, lot 108.
1972 A Nest for Two Boys
2018 SOLD for $ 90M including premium
David Hockney reaches his paradise on Earth in 1964. In Los Angeles the sky and the water of the pools are blue in different shades to which the midday sun brings a perfect purity. This atmosphere exacerbates his homosexual sensibility. Peter Schlesinger becomes his lover and muse in 1966.
David sees by chance on the floor of his studio the conjunction of two photographs that can constitute a scene : a swimmer under water and a standing boy watching something in the distance. The relationship between two men has always been one of his favorite themes. He has just found a way to express his affair with Peter.
It is not so easy for this hypersensitive artist. He destroys a first version. The sudden break between the lovers occurs around that time. In the spring of 1972 David leaves with two assistants to take photographs in a house of director Tony Richardson named Le Nid du Duc in the countryside above Saint-Tropez. During the summer of 1969 David and Peter had spent a few happy days at that place.
A photograph of the swimmer suits him. It will not be a self-portrait in the picture. For the properly dressed observer who will be standing up by the pool, he finds in his archives some photographs of the real Peter, as if David now agreed to entrust Peter to an unidentifiable swimmer.
The acrylic on canvas 213 x 305 cm painted in 1972 is titled Portrait of an Artist and subtitled Pool with Two Figures. The swimmer is under water and Peter is at the edge of the pool. Although Peter's gaze is directed towards the swimmer, communication between them is impossible.
In 1974 a biopic titled A Bigger Splash tells the story of the breaking up of David and Peter. David plays his own role. The film incorporates sequences that had been shot during the preparation of the Portrait of an Artist. The mix of emotion and real intimacy makes A Bigger Splash a cult film of the gay communities, to the point of shocking David himself. He will change his mind later.
This painting will be sold by Christie's in New York on November 15 as lot 9 C. The press release of September 13 announces an estimate in the region of $ 80M. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house including sequences from the movie.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use.
David sees by chance on the floor of his studio the conjunction of two photographs that can constitute a scene : a swimmer under water and a standing boy watching something in the distance. The relationship between two men has always been one of his favorite themes. He has just found a way to express his affair with Peter.
It is not so easy for this hypersensitive artist. He destroys a first version. The sudden break between the lovers occurs around that time. In the spring of 1972 David leaves with two assistants to take photographs in a house of director Tony Richardson named Le Nid du Duc in the countryside above Saint-Tropez. During the summer of 1969 David and Peter had spent a few happy days at that place.
A photograph of the swimmer suits him. It will not be a self-portrait in the picture. For the properly dressed observer who will be standing up by the pool, he finds in his archives some photographs of the real Peter, as if David now agreed to entrust Peter to an unidentifiable swimmer.
The acrylic on canvas 213 x 305 cm painted in 1972 is titled Portrait of an Artist and subtitled Pool with Two Figures. The swimmer is under water and Peter is at the edge of the pool. Although Peter's gaze is directed towards the swimmer, communication between them is impossible.
In 1974 a biopic titled A Bigger Splash tells the story of the breaking up of David and Peter. David plays his own role. The film incorporates sequences that had been shot during the preparation of the Portrait of an Artist. The mix of emotion and real intimacy makes A Bigger Splash a cult film of the gay communities, to the point of shocking David himself. He will change his mind later.
This painting will be sold by Christie's in New York on November 15 as lot 9 C. The press release of September 13 announces an estimate in the region of $ 80M. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house including sequences from the movie.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use.
1978 Paper Pulps by Hockney
2018 SOLD for $ 11.7M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
In 1978 David Hockney returned to California to settle there on a lasting basis. Passing through New York, he worked for six weeks with Ken Tyler to experiment artistic creation with colored pulp of paper that this papermaker-printer had invented for Ellsworth Kelly.
The artist uses a ladle to pour the wet pulp in metal molds partitioned to create simple figures. The work is adjusted by hand after removing the molds, before being pressed flat. Each image is unique, like the monotypes of the old days.
Hockney executed two series of paper pulps with Tyler. The earlier, to try the technique, is on the theme of sunflowers. Then the Paper Pools, for which he juxtaposes several shades of blue, are displaying swimming pools, most often with a springboard. Steps with shadow (Paper Pool 2), 130 x 85 cm, appears to be still experimental. It was sold for $ 2.4M including premium by Sotheby's on May 17, 2019, lot 140.
He designs his Paper Pools as assemblies of independently prepared elements. The junctions are visible. With this technique, he produced two large format artworks with twelve elements, the Paper Pools 18 and 27, 183 x 434 cm each.
Here are three results including premium for works in format 183 x 217 cm overall :
Day Pool with Three Blues, Paper Pool 7, in 6 small and 3 larger elements, sold for $ 10.5M by Christie's on May 15, 2019, lot 24 B.
Sprungbrett mit Schatten, Paper Pool 14, in 6 elements, sold for $ 7.3M by Christie's on November 15, 2018, lot 14 C.
Piscine de Medianoche, Paper Pool 30, in 6 elements, sold for $ 11.7M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018, lot 11.
The Paper Pool series was edited in high quantities in lithography in 1980.
After his 1978 session with Tyler, Hockney will not reuse paper pulp but the fragmentation will certainly inspire his gigantic landscapes in oil on canvas of the 2000s, composed of elements adjusted by computer.
The artist uses a ladle to pour the wet pulp in metal molds partitioned to create simple figures. The work is adjusted by hand after removing the molds, before being pressed flat. Each image is unique, like the monotypes of the old days.
Hockney executed two series of paper pulps with Tyler. The earlier, to try the technique, is on the theme of sunflowers. Then the Paper Pools, for which he juxtaposes several shades of blue, are displaying swimming pools, most often with a springboard. Steps with shadow (Paper Pool 2), 130 x 85 cm, appears to be still experimental. It was sold for $ 2.4M including premium by Sotheby's on May 17, 2019, lot 140.
He designs his Paper Pools as assemblies of independently prepared elements. The junctions are visible. With this technique, he produced two large format artworks with twelve elements, the Paper Pools 18 and 27, 183 x 434 cm each.
Here are three results including premium for works in format 183 x 217 cm overall :
Day Pool with Three Blues, Paper Pool 7, in 6 small and 3 larger elements, sold for $ 10.5M by Christie's on May 15, 2019, lot 24 B.
Sprungbrett mit Schatten, Paper Pool 14, in 6 elements, sold for $ 7.3M by Christie's on November 15, 2018, lot 14 C.
Piscine de Medianoche, Paper Pool 30, in 6 elements, sold for $ 11.7M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018, lot 11.
The Paper Pool series was edited in high quantities in lithography in 1980.
After his 1978 session with Tyler, Hockney will not reuse paper pulp but the fragmentation will certainly inspire his gigantic landscapes in oil on canvas of the 2000s, composed of elements adjusted by computer.
1980 Pleasure of the Road
2020 SOLD for $ 41M including premium
David Hockney could not do any more without Los Angeles. In 1978 he moves there permanently. The workshop is downside, in the plain of Santa Monica. The residence is up, in the Hollywood Hills. Everyday, morning and evening, his journey passes through Nichols Canyon. The environment is idyllic : swimming pools, palm trees, blue sky, bright colors.
The road is both winding and wide. It was built in 1925 to give the megalopolis a comfortable road escape to the north. David knows all its twists and turns. He drives with musical gestures. The melody he sings compensates for his increasing deafness.
David is not a professional musician. He is a pictorial artist. To express the pleasure of his journey, he paints in 1980 Nichols Canyon, acrylic on canvas 213 x 152 cm, with colors inspired by the vibrant exaggerations of the Fauvistes.
The musical meanders of the road cross all the space. It is a real road : its shortened name, Nichols Cyn Rd, is inscribed like on a road map. The STOP at the place where the road leaves the hills, in the foreground, marks the exit from that paradise. The red dot in the middle of the route symbolizes the artist's Mercedes-Benz.
Nichols Canyon will be sold by Phillips in New York on December 7, lot 10. The October 26 press release announces an estimate in the region of $ 35M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
David had pleasure in communicating in this work his musical style of driving in the hills. Painted ten years later with the same inspiration in a more spectacular perspective, Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica, oil on canvas 198 x 305 cm, was sold for $ 28.5M including premium by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018.
The road is both winding and wide. It was built in 1925 to give the megalopolis a comfortable road escape to the north. David knows all its twists and turns. He drives with musical gestures. The melody he sings compensates for his increasing deafness.
David is not a professional musician. He is a pictorial artist. To express the pleasure of his journey, he paints in 1980 Nichols Canyon, acrylic on canvas 213 x 152 cm, with colors inspired by the vibrant exaggerations of the Fauvistes.
The musical meanders of the road cross all the space. It is a real road : its shortened name, Nichols Cyn Rd, is inscribed like on a road map. The STOP at the place where the road leaves the hills, in the foreground, marks the exit from that paradise. The red dot in the middle of the route symbolizes the artist's Mercedes-Benz.
Nichols Canyon will be sold by Phillips in New York on December 7, lot 10. The October 26 press release announces an estimate in the region of $ 35M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
David had pleasure in communicating in this work his musical style of driving in the hills. Painted ten years later with the same inspiration in a more spectacular perspective, Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica, oil on canvas 198 x 305 cm, was sold for $ 28.5M including premium by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018.
1988 Artist's Life in Hollywood
2018 SOLD for $ 12.7M including premium
Subjugated by Los Angeles, David Hockney had been living since 1979 in a luxurious house on Montcalm Avenue in the Hollywood Hills. Always ready to exhibit his private life, he painted in 1988 two views of his living room sunlit by a glass roof. Large Interior offers the perspective of a fish-eye photo while Montcalm Interior with Two Dogs recreates the natural perspective.
These two works are inspired directly from the Matisse interiors by the use of pure colors, the presence of large striated surfaces and the visibility on the outside surrounding through a veranda.
The geometric arrangement of the furniture is elegant, confirming that this comfortable home is inhabited normally. Two elements remind the personality of David Hockney. The back wall is covered with his own works to help maintaining his self-satisfaction. In the view with the dogs, the piano reduced to a flying carcass is rendered useless by the increasing deafness of the artist.
Montcalm Interior with Two Dogs, oil on canvas 183 x 152 cm, is estimated $ 9M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 14, lot 17. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
These two works are inspired directly from the Matisse interiors by the use of pure colors, the presence of large striated surfaces and the visibility on the outside surrounding through a veranda.
The geometric arrangement of the furniture is elegant, confirming that this comfortable home is inhabited normally. Two elements remind the personality of David Hockney. The back wall is covered with his own works to help maintaining his self-satisfaction. In the view with the dogs, the piano reduced to a flying carcass is rendered useless by the increasing deafness of the artist.
Montcalm Interior with Two Dogs, oil on canvas 183 x 152 cm, is estimated $ 9M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 14, lot 17. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1990 With Wagner on the Highway
2018 SOLD for $ 28.5M including premium
David Hockney has his studio in Santa Monica. In the mid afternoon he returns home to Hollywood Hills by the Pacific Coast Highway. The journey is long and repetitive. In 1990 he prepares a 90-minute tape of Wagner's music on a rhythm that matches the immutable sequence of the visited landscape.
He installs a control panel and twelve speakers in his vintage red convertible Mercedes. He names My Wagner Drive this unprecedented audio-landscape work that has no meaning outside his usual transit on the highway.
At that time Hockney is not very active in his main occupation as a graphic artist. He wants his art to be happy but many of his friends are dying of AIDS. Wagner's road helps him against his doubts.
On May 16 in New York, Sotheby's sells Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica, oil on canvas 198 x 305 cm painted in 1990, lot 21 estimated $ 20M.
This painting is an accumulation of rare colors in closed surfaces. Its naive geometric composition meets the taste of the classical Chinese landscape that brings together several observation points for a more spectacular effect, in opposition to works inspired by photography. The winding road is the only evidence of a human intervention.
Later in a trend towards monumental painting, Hockney will divide the landscape into a grid of autonomous canvases, confirming that even when his subject is unique his point of observation is not. Painted in 1998 the 169 x 167 cm view of the Grand Canyon is an example of this once again unconventional phase. This study in fifteen parts was sold for £ 6M including premium by Sotheby's on October 5, 2017.
He installs a control panel and twelve speakers in his vintage red convertible Mercedes. He names My Wagner Drive this unprecedented audio-landscape work that has no meaning outside his usual transit on the highway.
At that time Hockney is not very active in his main occupation as a graphic artist. He wants his art to be happy but many of his friends are dying of AIDS. Wagner's road helps him against his doubts.
On May 16 in New York, Sotheby's sells Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica, oil on canvas 198 x 305 cm painted in 1990, lot 21 estimated $ 20M.
This painting is an accumulation of rare colors in closed surfaces. Its naive geometric composition meets the taste of the classical Chinese landscape that brings together several observation points for a more spectacular effect, in opposition to works inspired by photography. The winding road is the only evidence of a human intervention.
Later in a trend towards monumental painting, Hockney will divide the landscape into a grid of autonomous canvases, confirming that even when his subject is unique his point of observation is not. Painted in 1998 the 169 x 167 cm view of the Grand Canyon is an example of this once again unconventional phase. This study in fifteen parts was sold for £ 6M including premium by Sotheby's on October 5, 2017.
1996 Sunflowers againt Sorrow
2020 SOLD for HK$ 115M including premium
Henry Geldzahler dies in 1994 of liver cancer, at the age of 59. David Hockney, who is two years younger, loses his most effective support in America. Very shocked by this untimely passing and worried about the health of his own mother, David reacts. In 1995 he paints a series of portraits of his dogs because these pets have no reason to share his melancholy.
His sorrow is deep and that first remedy is not enough. He manages to better appreciate his most famous predecessors, starting with a Monet exhibition in Chicago. He makes a trip to The Hague for a Vermeer exhibition which captivates him by the intact transparency of the color layers.
Excited by these examples, he realizes in 1996 a series of 25 paintings about flowers. One of the two largest displays 30 sunflowers divided into five bouquets. This 183 x 183 cm oil on canvas was sold by Phillips de Pury on May 12, 2011 for $ 2.55M including premium, a very good price for a work by Hockney at that time. It will be sold by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on July 9, lot 1118. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This painting follows the examples from Monet in 1881 and from van Gogh in 1888 by bringing together several phases of flowering, while a faded sunflower on the table in the foreground echoes Nature Morte à l'Espérance, the tragic painting made by Gauguin in 1901, two years before his death.
Hockney once explained his choice about this theme : “I have always painted flowers for friends who were ill.” His capacity for resilience was further expressed on current year during the Covid-19 health crisis. A painting showing daffodils in a meadow is titled "Do remember they can't cancel the spring".
His sorrow is deep and that first remedy is not enough. He manages to better appreciate his most famous predecessors, starting with a Monet exhibition in Chicago. He makes a trip to The Hague for a Vermeer exhibition which captivates him by the intact transparency of the color layers.
Excited by these examples, he realizes in 1996 a series of 25 paintings about flowers. One of the two largest displays 30 sunflowers divided into five bouquets. This 183 x 183 cm oil on canvas was sold by Phillips de Pury on May 12, 2011 for $ 2.55M including premium, a very good price for a work by Hockney at that time. It will be sold by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on July 9, lot 1118. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This painting follows the examples from Monet in 1881 and from van Gogh in 1888 by bringing together several phases of flowering, while a faded sunflower on the table in the foreground echoes Nature Morte à l'Espérance, the tragic painting made by Gauguin in 1901, two years before his death.
Hockney once explained his choice about this theme : “I have always painted flowers for friends who were ill.” His capacity for resilience was further expressed on current year during the Covid-19 health crisis. A painting showing daffodils in a meadow is titled "Do remember they can't cancel the spring".
