Meaning & Analysis

This signed print by British artist David Hockney is entitled Hat On A Chair. It was issued in an edition of 100 in 1998. As its name suggests, it depicts one of Hockney’s recurring subjects: the humble chair and is an example of Hockney’s signature cross-hatching.

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Hat On A Chair is a signed print by British artist David Hockney. It serves as testament to the artist’s long fascination with furniture, domestic objects he explored at length throughout 1998 with the help of his old friend, Maurice Payne – a master printer. After helping Hockney to set up a print studio in his Hollywood Hills home, Payne would leave a number of primed etching plates in various locations throughout the building, allowing Hockney to depict the everyday objects and characters of his domestic life at any time or location convenient to him. Domesticity is a running theme in the work Hockney issued in 1998; the 40 or so paintings and drawings of his pet Dachshunds, Stanley and Boodgie, produced mostly in 1993, were published in book form as David Hockney’s Dog Days. These works, visible in the photographic print Dog Days, required a domestic setting for their production; observing his dogs relaxing at home, only in this environment would Hockney be able to produce such images, each of which required a considerable amount of undisturbed time to make. In Hat On A Chair, we see further evidence of Hockney’s signature approach to etching: using cross-hatching, the artist accords the piece a variety of textures, each of which giving a different sense of depth.