1991
The art of David Hockney is always engaging in its pleasant ambiguities: his prints, drawings and paintings are warm but somehow aloof; filled with light yet often dark and brooding in subject; simple, frank and mundane, but also ethereal and complex. The artist’s stature in the contemporary art world is such that, in a 2011 survey of one thousand British painters and sculptors, he was named the most influential British artist of all time.
Hockney grew up in Bradford, in the northern English county of Yorkshire, studying at the Bradford School of Art from 1953 to ’57, and at the Royal College of Art in London from 1959 to 1962. Though he was educated in art at a time when abstraction dominated the field, Hockney stuck resolutely to figurative painting and drawing.
Hockney's early paintings suggest a search for a style, veering from Expressionism to a grotesquerie suggestive of James Ensor. But Hockney found himself almost the moment he arrived in Los Angeles, in 1963. The move from the gray and rainy Britain to a world of bright sunshine and sparkling water brought Hockney a sense of freedom and an artistic epiphany. He would spend most of the next five years in L.A., painting luminous pictures, such as A Bigger Splash (1967), of things that made him happy: swimming pools, manicured lawns, palm trees, stucco buildings and luxuries like shower stalls. Hockney also painted people, almost always his friends. His California portraits such as Beverly Hills Housewife (1966) are considered to be his finest work. They are at once grandly scaled, intimate and poetic.
In the 1970s, Hockney moved back to Britain and spent much of his time on photography and printmaking. He returned to painting in the 1980s, and to subjects like still lifes, seascapes and portraits. Hockney has always been fascinated by the use of technology in art — he’s credited with inventing the technique of joining Polaroid photos in a collage to form a panoramic picture — and has been using the Brush app to paint on an iPad. Because he was prolific and worked in a wide range of mediums, Hockney’s art is available at many price points. His consistently striking and provocative work should have a place in any comprehensive collection of contemporary art.
Find original David Hockney art on 1stDibs.
A Retrospective at the Tate Gallery
By David Hockney
Located in London, GB
A rare original exhibition poster from David Hockney's A Retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery in 1988-1989 featuring Hockney's original artwork titled Little Stanley Sleeping...
Lithograph, Wove Paper
Untitled No. 516, from: A Bigger Book, Art Edition D
By David Hockney
Located in London, GB
Untitled iPad drawing printed on paper from A Bigger Book 2016 56 x 43.2 cm Edition 85 of 250 Hand signed, numbered and dated '10' by Hockney Published by David Hockney and Taschen A...
Paper, Digital
Hand-signed Two Boys Aged 23 or 24 Galerie Mikro Berlin
By David Hockney
Located in London, GB
An extremely rare hand-signed edition of the iconic exhibition poster depicting two male figures lying in bed together in a moment of relaxation, created to advertise Hockney's 1968 ...
Lithograph, Paper, Offset
The Dog Show
By David Hockney
Located in London, GB
Measures 71.5 x 49.5 cm. Never framed. An original exhibition poster from the 1990s that features Hockney's artwork of his beloved Stanley and Boodge. David Hockney (born 1937) is...
Paper, Lithograph
Hand Signed Gregory Evans Artcurial Paris Exhibition Poster
By David Hockney
Located in London, GB
Hand signed Artcurial original exhibition poster featuring Gregory Evans. Colour lithographic poster on Creysee paper. 1979. 76.5 x 53.6 cm. Edition of 500. Hand signed in pencil by...
Lithograph, Paper
Remember That You Cannot Look at The Sun or Death For Very Long
By David Hockney
Located in London, GB
Lithographic poster with a yellow silk screen overlay on 170gsm paper. Released by CIRCA in 2021. Limited edition of 3,000 prints. 89.4 x 25.4 cm. The print comes with a stamped dat...
Paper, Lithograph
Hockney's Alphabet, portfolio of 26 lithographs signed by Hockney and 23 writers
By David Hockney
Located in New York, NY
David Hockney Hockney's Alphabet, 1991 26 color lithographs in Fine Art Cartridge paper bound in quarter vellum with handmade Fabriano Roma paper sides, housed in matching box; signed by David Hockney and most contributors in ink and numbered 178 in black ink on the justification page Numbered 178/250 Hand signed by 24 of the contributors, including David Hockney and Steven Spender 12 5/8 x 9 5/8 inches Bound in book and held in slipcase This portfolio features 26 color lithographs in Fine Art Cartridge paper with full margins, bound as issued, in quarter vellum with handmade Fabriano Roma paper sides, in original grey slipcase. It is signed by David Hockney (the artist) and most contributors in ink and numbered 178 in black ink on the justification page, from the edition of 250, with full text and title page, published by Faber & Faber, London, text edits by Stephen Spender, who also signed. It is illustrated by David Hockney, hand signed by David Hockney and Stephen Spender and also signed by the following contributors: Douglas Adams, Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, William Boyd, Margaret Drabble, Patrick Leigh Fermor, William Golding, Seamus Heaney...
Lithograph
David Hockney Portraits by Sarah Howgate & Barbara Stern Shapiro (Book)
Located in North Yorkshire, GB
David Hockney is one of the most significant artists exploring and pushing the boundaries of figurative art today. He has been engaged with portraiture since his teenage years, when he painted Portrait of My Father (1955), and portraits of family, lovers, friends and well-known subjects represent an intimate visual diary of the artist's life. This authoritative new study examines Hockney's portraits in all media - painting, drawing, photocollage and prints - and is produced in close collaboration with the artist. Together, the authors reveal how Hockney's creative development and concerns about representation can be traced through his portrait work: from his iconic double portraits of the late 1960s and early 1970s to his cubist-influenced investigations of the 1980s and from his recent camera lucida...
Paper
David Hockney 112 L.A. Visitors Folio 7 Lithos & Title Page Ed 20 Orig Receipt
By David Hockney
Located in Palm Springs, CA
A wonderful folio by the Modern Master David Hockney. This folio was assembled in 1993 from a series of photographs the artist made of visitors to his Studio in Los Angeles between 1...
Paper
Andrew ROTH. Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the 20th Century
Located in Hillsborough, NJ
AUTHOR: ROTH, Andrew - editor, (Essays by) Richard Benson, May Castleberry, Jeffrey Fraenkel, Daido Moriyama, Shelley Rice, Neville Wakefield, (Contributors) Vince Aletti, David Levi Strauss. TITLE: The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century. PUBLISHER: NY: PPP Editions/ Roth Horowitz LLC, 2001. DESCRIPTION: LIMITED DELUXE EDITION. 1 vol., 12" x 10", limited to 500 copies, bound in 1/4 black morocco, spine lettered in blind, illustrated with numerous four-color and black and...
Leather
David Hockney at Castelli Graphics
By David Hockney
Located in New York, NY
David Hockney at Castelli Graphics, 1981 Offset Lithograph poster 20 × 16 inches Unsigned Unframed 1981 poster published on the occasion of the release of ...
Offset
David Hockney: A Bigger Picture by Xavier F. Salomon (Book)
Located in North Yorkshire, GB
David Hockney CH RA has always been closely associated with California, where he has lived for much of his life. This major study of his work redefines him as an important painter of...
Paper
