David Hockney The Printmaker

David Hockney experimented with printmaking as early as a lithograph Self-Portrait in 1954 and worked in etchings during his time at RCA. In 1965, the print workshop Gemini G.E.L. approached him to create a series of lithographs with a Los Angeles theme. Hockney responded by creating The Hollywood Collection, a series of lithographs recreating the art collection of a Hollywood star, each piece depicting an imagined work of art within a frame. Hockney went on to produce many other portfolios with Gemini G.E.L. including Friends, The Weather Series, and Some New Prints.

 

 

During the 1960s Hockney produced several series of prints he thought of as ‘graphic tales’, including A Rake’s Progress (1961–63) after Hogarth, Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C.P. Cavafy (1966) and Illustrations for Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm (1969).

In 1973 Hockney began a fruitful collaboration with Aldo Crommelynck, Picasso’s preferred printer. In his atelier, he adopted Crommelynck’s trademark sugar lift, as well as a system of the master’s own devising of imposing a wooden frame onto the plate to ensure color separation. Their early work together included Artist and Model (1973–74) and Contrejour in the French Style (1974).

 

 

In 1976 Hockney created a portfolio of 20 etchings at Crommelynck’s atelier, The Blue Guitar: Etchings By David Hockney Who Was Inspired By Wallace Stevens Who Was Inspired By Pablo Picasso. The etchings refer to themes in a poem by Wallace Stevens, “The Man with the Blue Guitar”. It was published by Petersburg Press in October 1977. That year, Petersburg also published a book, in which the images were accompanied by the poem’s text.

 

 

In the summer of 1978, David Hockney stayed 6 weeks with his friend the printer Ken Tyler. Tyler invited Hockney to try a new technique with liquid paper. The process is painting with the paper itself, so the artist had to do it himself by hand. Each image becomes a unique work between printmaking and painting. In 6 weeks, Hockney created a total of 29 artworks with a series of 17 sunflowers and swimming pools.

 

David Hockney Prints

View available David Hockney prints here.