An Image Of Celia (study)
Signed Print

An Image Of Celia (study) brings together various disparate elements in a slightly awkward composition that nonetheless manages to convey Hockney’s eye for portraits and invention with colour. In this work we find a number of drawings of his close friend and muse Celia Birtwell; the image is dominated by a floating canvas, shown in 3d and casting a shadow below, which depicts a close up of Birtwell’s face in a style recognisable from the Moving Focus series. Here her features are given a Cubist treatment, her wide blue eyes skewed and highlighted in green, showing this to be a close study for the work An Image Of Celia. Below the canvas is a shadowy portrait in blue where she is less identifiable and above is a pink shaded part where just an eye and a pair of lips are shown. The whole effect feels like we have been given a glimpse into the artist’s sketchbook as he figures out a composition before he sets to work, however the work is unusual in that it is a print which the artist decided to publish in an edition of 60, suggesting this is more than just a study.