David Hockney

An Image of Gregory

1984–5

On loan

Bucerius Kunst Forum (Hamburg, Germany): David Hockney

Artist: David Hockney born 1937
Medium: 2 lithographs on paper
Dimensions: Image: 815 × 640 mm
image: 1165 × 895 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the artist 1993
Reference: P20114

Summary

This is one of several prints in which overtones of Picasso's art are explicit. After his death in 1973, Picasso began increasingly to dominate Hockney's thinking. Hockney produced The Student: Homage to Picasso for a portfolio commemorating Picasso's death. His humility before the Spanish master is demonstrated in his print Artist and Model, 1973-4. An Image of Gregory is about a manner of depiction rather than a portrait of an individual. Hockney enclosed the upper and lower parts of the figure in picture frames of different sizes, further destroying the illusion. The sitter, Gregory Evans, was Hockney's assistant and companion for nearly a decade. He sat for Hockney numerous times.

Further reading:
David Hockney: A Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles 1988, pp.50-1, reproduced in colour

Terry Riggs
November 1997

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