In the 1980s, British artist David Hockney began working with Polaroids, originally intending to utilize the images to aid in his painting process. Unexpectedly intrigued by photography’s ability to render numerous perspectives of the same space and enthralled with the temporal aspect of the medium, Hockney’s composites evolved into large scale photo-collages. In recent years, Hockney has combined photography with his drawing and painting practice, resulting in a series of “photographic drawings” of which the present lot is a premiere example.
Originally exhibited in Something New in Painting (and Photography) [and even Printing] at PACE Gallery in New York in 2018, Inside It Opens Up As Well, 2018, depicts a sprawling studio filled with representations of Hockney’s hexagonal landscape paintings and portraits, either hung on the wall or perched atop easels.
In the present lot, an uncanny representation of Hockney stands off-center, arms upstretched and peering into a painting which reads “outside it opens up” on the top and “perspective is tunnel vision” on the bottom. Two onlookers sit casually as Hockney undergoes a moment of fervent revelation. The scene encapsulates not only an oeuvre of Hockney’s work, but also affirms Lawrence Weschler’s assertion that, “for years now, exploring, critiquing, and trying to transcend the limitations of conventional perspective have all been near the center of his creative practice.”
Provenance
Pace, New York
Literature
PACE, Something New in Painting (and Photography) [and even Printing]: David Hockney, pp. 4-20, 128-129 and inside back fold-out
Artist Biography
David Hockney
David Hockney (b. 1937) is one of the most well-known and celebrated artists of the
20th and 21st centuries. He works across many mediums, including painting, collage,
and more recently digitally, by creating print series on iPads. His works show semi-
abstract representations of domestic life, human relationships, floral, fauna, and the
changing of seasons.
Hockney has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Royal
Academy of Arts in London, and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, among many
other institutions. On the secondary market, his work has sold for more than $90
million.
245
Inside It Opens Up As Well
2018
Photographic drawing printed on paper, mounted.
32 3/4 x 89 3/4 in. (83.2 x 228 cm)
Overall 36 x 93 in. (91.4 x 236.2 cm)
Signed, dated and numbered 8/25 in ink on the recto.
Estimate
$100,000 - 150,000
Sarah Krueger
Head of Department, Photographs, New York
skrueger@phillips.com
Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Deputy Chairwoman, Americas
vhallett@phillips.com
Photographs
New York Auction 12 October 2022
