“Hockney? He has immortalised me”
—Celia BirtwellCelia with Green Plant and Celia in the Director’s Chair, both of 1980, feature one of David Hockney’s closest friends and arguably his most famous muse: Celia Birtwell. Born in Bury, Greater Manchester, in 1941, Celia Birtwell studied textile design at the Royal Technical College in Salford. In 1959, she met Raymond ‘Ossie’ Clark, an up-and-coming fashion designer. The pair were married in London in 1969, with David Hockney in attendance as Clark’s best man. Although Ossie Clark initially crossed paths with Hockney in the early 1960s, it was not until 1969 that Hockney produced his first portraits of Celia. Upon meeting, Celia and Hockney immediately formed a special bond, and the British fashion designer has since sat for the artist on more than eighty occasions over the past five decades. A motif in his work as familiar as the swimming pools of Los Angeles or the landscape of Normandy, Celia’s likeness features in approximately a quarter of Hockney’s printed portraits.“Portraits aren't just made up of drawing, they are made up of other insights as well. Celia is one of the few girls I know really well. I've drawn her so many times and knowing her makes it always slightly different. I don’t bother getting the likeness in her face because I know it so well. She has many faces and I think if you looked through all the drawings I’ve done of her, you’d see that they don’t look alike”
—David Hockney
Henri Matisse, Nadia, au visage rond, 1948. Artwork: © Succession H. Matisse / DACS 2022 Celia with Green Plant and Celia in the Director’s Chair demonstrate the strong influence that the linear drawings and prints of early-twentieth century French artists like Henri Matisse had on Hockney’s work. In prints such as Nadia, au visage rond (1948), Matisse depicted his sitter solely through his use of black lines, resulting in a highly simplistic yet captivating portrait. Inspired by the French master, Hockney similarly manages to convey various textures and surfaces through minimal gestures and the occasional use of solid blacks or block colours. In Celia in the Director’s Chair, the differentiation between Celia’s clothing, her hair and the chair she perches on are achieved solely through monochromatic mark making. Similarly, in Celia with Green Plant, Celia’s patterned clothing is conjured up through individual calligraphic marks, as is her hair. In both images, Celia’s face is constructed using only the most essential lines. The one exception is the dash of vivid red lipstick in Celia with Green Plant, which acts as a focal point in the lithograph ensuring the viewer’s attention remains on the sitter rather than on the surrounding foliage. Instead of restricting himself to creating an exact likeness in line with the conventions of portraiture, Hockney continuously challenged himself to experiment through his numerous depictions of Celia. In both Celia with Green Plant and Celia in the Director’s Chair, Hockney investigates how much information is required to capture the essence of his sitter and to convey her likeness. The fluidity of line in the two prints also exemplifies the freedom Hockney discovered in lithography as a medium.
Literature
Gemini G.E.L. 916
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo 244Artist 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.
24
Celia in the Director's Chair (Gemini G.E.L. 916, M.C.A.T. 244)
1980
Lithograph, on Kurotani paper, with full margins.
I. 96 x 62 cm (37 3/4 x 24 3/8 in.)
S. 106.2 x 96 cm (41 3/4 x 37 3/4 in.)
Signed, dated and numbered 88/100 in pencil (there were also 20 artist's proofs), published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles (with their blindstamps), 1981, framed.
Estimate
£10,000 - 15,000 ♠
Sold for £16,380
Rebecca Tooby-Desmond
Specialist, Head of Sale, Editions
T +44 207 318 4079
M +44 7502 417366
rtooby-desmond@phillips.com
Robert Kennan
Head of Editions, Europe
T +44 207 318 4075
M +44 7824 994 784
rkennan@phillips.com
Anne Schneider-Wilson
Senior International Specialist, Editions
T +44 207 318 4042
M +44 7760 864 748
aschneider-wilson@phillips.com
Evening & Day Editions
London Auction 18 - 19 January 2023
168
This lot is no longer available.
300
This lot is no longer available.
