Provenance
Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago
Christie's New York, 'Post War and Contemporary Art Morning Session', 14 November 2007, lot 206
Exhibited
New York, André Emmerich Gallery, David Hockney, Some Very New Paintings, 7 January - 13 February 1993; then travelled to Glasgow, William Hardie Gallery and Saltaire, 1853 Gallery, no. 19 (illustrated)
Tokyo, Nishimura Gallery, David Hockney: New Works, 8 November - 10 December 1994, pl. 15, no. 6 (illustrated)
Literature
D. Hockney, That's the Way I See It, London, 1993, p. 230, pl. 334 (illustrated in colour)
Catalogue Essay
“I paint what I like when I like and where I like.” DAVID HOCKNEY

One of the most celebrated British artists of the Twentieth century, David Hockney is renowned for his satirical paintings, his masterly prints and drawings, and his penetrating portraits of contemporary personalities. The present lot, executed in 1992, stands as a quintessential example of the artist’s extreme versatility, forming part of a series of twenty-six pieces entitled The Very New Paintings. Completed during Hockney’s intense involvement with opera design, this series successfully exemplifies the profound influence this five year period of theatre-work would impress upon his painting.

The Twenty First Very New Painting is particularly reminiscent of the artist’s opera designs. Highly stylised, it is composed of enveloping spaces that are depicted in an exaggerated intensity of colours which he intricately combines within a single frame. Indeed, the bold, primary colours pulse on the page, and are composed with a dynamism that is reminiscent of the brightness and intensity that characterises much of André Derain’s early Fauvist paintings. Moving close to abstraction, the present lot equally demonstrates Hockney’s progression into a mode of art that uses a more synthetic language of form, space and colour– a feature that recalls Gauguin’s Tahitian artworks, in which he had also developed a new synthetic style, albeit one that combined decorative abstract painting with figuration. They suitably recall, too, the precision of his stage lighting in productions such as Puccini’s Turandot in 1992. Indeed, the discourse between the artist’s studio and the theatre seems to have culminated with this concentrated investigation into the concept of landscape as being the result of both visual observation and visceral experience – a notion which is visually manifested here in Hockney’s attempt to convey space in an even more abstracted idiom than in his preceding works, Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica, 1990, and Under and Out of the Arch, 1989.

Similar to these earlier works, the present lot is an impressive ode to the sensations of the mountain and coastal landscapes in California, comprising of planes and patterns that unfurl to create a cubist-like spatial composition, suggesting an array of differing perspectives. The influence of the stylistic principles of Cubism, and of Picasso’s work in particular, has served as a vast source of inspiration for Hockney, who has long-made use of motifs evoked in the artist’s oeuvre. This is especially evident in the dramatic use of space and colour in The Twenty First V.N. Painting, manifested most patently in the surging perspectives, which seek to draw the viewer both mentally and emotionally into the picture− just as Hockney had done with the sweeping vistas that formed the background of his operatic stage designs. The artist himself explains it thus: “I started the group called Some Very New Paintings in 1992 after I had finished my set designs for Die Frau Ohne Schatten. These started simply and grew more and more complex. I soon realized that what I was doing was making internal landscapes, using different marks and textures to create space, so that the viewer wanders around.” (Thames & Hudson, Hockney’s Pictures, London, 2004, p.57)

Encapsulating the essence of Southern California, the piece brims with a variety of style, texture and multi-faceted viewpoints which entice us fully into the space. The stage-like appearance of the present lot, enriched by the extensive experience Hockney had gained while designing for opera, is evident in the lyrical and undulating shapes and planes. Together, these elements contribute to the vibrant atmosphere of the painting– one which appears to assert the freedom of being able to perceive the world in a seemingly infinite number of ways.
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.

View More Works

21

David Hockney

The Twenty First Very New Painting

1992
oil on canvas
61 x 61 cm. (24 x 24 in.)
Signed, titled and dated 'The twenty first very new painting David Hockney 1992' on the reverse.

Estimate
£250,000 - 350,000 ‡♠

Sold for £338,500

Contact Specialist
Peter Sumner
Head of Contemporary Art, London
psumner@phillips.com
+44 207 318 4063

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London 16 October 2013

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Ryan Sullivan
February 5th, 2011
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Adam McEwen
Basement Doors
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Tauba Auerbach
Untitled (Fold)
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Dan Colen
Untitled
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Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Orange Butterfly Over Green)
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Sterling Ruby
SP83
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Christopher Wool
Untitled (P430)
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Nate Lowman
Marilyn Will Be Dead Soon
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Thomas Schütte
Sechs Geister (Schwartz)
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Gerhard Richter
Weiß (White)
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11
Anselm Kiefer
Samson and Delilah
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12
Richard Prince
Untitled (Cowboy)
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13
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
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Andy Warhol
Untitled (Cars)
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15
Maurizio Cattelan
Turisti
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Richard Prince
Untitled (Rome After Dark)
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17
Komar and Melamid
Girl in Front of a Mirror
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Ed Ruscha
Idea
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19
Yan Pei-Ming
Golden Buddha
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20
Chris Ofili
Pramnian Odyssey 2
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21
David Hockney
The Twenty First Very New Painting
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Sold for £338,500
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22
Andy Warhol
Flower
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23
Keith Haring
Untitled
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24
Alexander Calder
The Lion (maquette)
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25
Sigmar Polke
Untitled
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26
Peter Fischli and David Weiss
Floß
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Albert Oehlen
Muschel 2
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28
Albert Oehlen
Ameisen
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29
Mary Heilmann
It's Raining Today
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Anselm Reyle
Untitled
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Liza Lou
Security Fence
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Jacob Kassay
Untitled
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Thomas Struth
Museo del Prado 5, Madrid
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Ged Quinn
The Ghost of a Mountain
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Marc Quinn
The Antarctic Nurseries of El Dorado (True North)
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Farhad Moshiri
Natural
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Rashid Johnson
Sun Goddess
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38
Oscar Murillo
Untitled
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Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London 16 October 2013

Create your first list.

Provenance

Exhibited

Literature

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

David Hockney

21

David Hockney

The Twenty First Very New Painting

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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