Ann Looking At Her Picture
Ann Looking At Her Picture
Signed Print
David Hockney
Lithograph, 1980
Signed Print Edition of 50
H 113cm x W 76cm
Critical Review
This signed lithograph by British artist David Hockney is part of the artist’s Portraits collection. Issued in 1980 in an edition of 50, this lithograph is just one example of Hockney’s innate ability to offer a vibrant and intimate look at those with whom the artist has shared his life.
The style of this work, when compared to Hockney’s other Portraits, belies Hockney’s endless versatility. Here, Hockney’s subject has her back turned but is she looking back over her shoulder to regard the artist. Outstretched in her arms is a picture of herself. Whilst the subject’s facial features have been executed with greater detail, her clothes and the photograph she holds are executed more crudely with thicker, expressive strokes. As none of Hockney’s portraits are commissioned, they offer an intimate look at those with whom the artist shares his personal life: friends, family and acquaintances. Much like the title of Hockney’s 2020 solo exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London, throughout his career Hockney is ‘drawing from life’. Favouring communication through drawing, Hockney confesses these sitting allow for intimacy and closeness, which “cannot be achieved so readily with the bravura of the painted portrait”.
