“The xerox machine is really fascinating… because I realise it’s a camera and a printing machine”
—David Hockney
In February 1986, David Hockney was experimenting with a photocopier when he stumbled across a new creative process that would profoundly shape his artistic output for the following months. Photocopiers had become a staple in most offices by the 1980s and were used for mundane, reproductive tasks. Yet, in the photocopier Hockney saw a device that was simultaneously a camera and a printing press. Fascinated by the potential of such a machine, his prolific experimentation resulted in a body of work he referred to as his “home-made prints”, a series which includes the image Celia with Chair. Ever the innovator, Hockney embraced new technologies in edition-making throughout his career, and his home-made prints afforded him yet another technique to play with, without diminishing his concerns for mark making and the layering of vibrant colours. Charming in their simple execution and engaging subject matter, Hockney’s home-made prints are the product of an artist seeking the joy of representation with any possible media.
Returning to one of his most famous muses, Celia with Chair depicts the face of British fashion designer Celia Birtwell. Yet, rather than simply replicating Celia’s likeness, Hockney here demonstrates his enduring interest in Cubism and the use of multiple perspectives in one image. The room depicted in Celia with Chair is void of perspectival depth, with floor tiles jutting out at disorienting angles. The chair is depicted from multiple viewpoints, combined into one abstracted form. On the easel, a canvas is situated containing Celia’s facial features in a simplified and disorderly fashion, akin to Pablo Picasso’s portraits of Dora Maar. In a break from the conventions of traditional portraiture, Celia is portrayed in the picture plane through her own portrait, and it is her portrait that defines her presence in Hockney's print rather than her actual likeness. Celia with Chair serves as Hockney’s subtle but characteristically whimsical challenge to the accepted definition of a portrait, as well as an important example of his innovative home-made printing technique.
