A Bigger Fire
A Bigger Fire
Signed Print
David Hockney
POA
This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
Digital Print, 2020
Signed Print Edition of 35
Critical Review
A Bigger Fire (2020) is a digital print by David Hockney, created with the use of an iPad. Hockney has been drawing on the iPad since it was first released in 2010 and his artistic output inspired by the medium continues to be prolific, including 212 digital paintings produced in 2018. A timely reminder about the importance of finding spaces of joy and comfort at the time of global unrest, the painting was used as a front cover for the December issue of New Yorker in 2020.
The print depicts an outdoor altar with a burning fireplace rendered as a swarm of twisted lines in orange and yellow. While Hockney’s many depictions of domestic spaces have varied from minimalistic to exuberantly detailed and playful, the digital paintings represent the artist’s renewed foray into experiments with colour and bold marks characterising his earlier works, such as Pembroke Studio Interior (1984). Created shortly after the outbreak of the global pandemic, the image of the hearth inevitably invites associations with the comfort of retreating into one’s private space during uncertain times. A strip of red bricks in the top part of the drawing combined with beige floor and brown background behind the fireplace establish a warm colour palette that further tightens the link between the subject matter and notions of solace and escape.
