Henry In His Office
Henry In His Office
Signed Print
David Hockney
31 x 29cm, Edition of 20, Lithograph, 1976
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Meaning & Analysis
Henry In His Office (1976) by David Hockney is a signed lithograph print on a handmade Kurodani Japanese paper depicting Henry Geldzahler, the artist’s lifelong friend and contemporary art curator. New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970, a key exhibition in Hockney’s career, was organised by Gelzahler who was the curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1960 until 1977. The range of styles and techniques in which Hockney depicted Geldzahler expanded consistently throughout the years. Looking at the 1976 print alongside Henry Gelzahler And Christopher Scott (1969), Looking At Pictures On A Screen (1977) or The Conversation (1980) offers insight into the close artistic and personal friendship as well as the evolution of Hockney’s idiom as he returned to his favourite subjects.
In this portrait, Hockney renounces his recognizable use of crisp linear outlines associated with the naturalist tradition of representation. Instead, the friend’s likeness is configured from a series of marks, blotches, and transparent black-ink stripes resembling the Oriental brush strokes. In this print, the effect achieved by Hockney’s use of tusche, a diluted form of lithographic ink, is one of fluidity. Given their irregular shape and varied intensity of the ink, the stripes seem to flow down from the sitter’s shirt. While the sitter’s body language is relaxed, his facial expression appears earnest. As the man’s gaze is focused at an indefinite point in front of him, a rather nostalgic demeanour seems to reflect the moment of sinking in thought. Depicting the man against a plain background, the print displays an extreme simplicity reflective of Hockney’s attempt to orient the viewer’s attention towards the sphere of emotions and feelings experienced by his sitters.
