Simplified Faces (State II)
Simplified Faces (State II)
Signed Print
David Hockney
56 x 50cm, Edition of 30, Etching, 1973
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Meaning & Analysis
Simplified Faces (State II) is a 1973 etching by David Hockney. Four portraits are formed from geometric shapes, a rectangle, a circle, a diamond and a triangle, each placed against a solid form and labelled below in yellow. The work is signed, dated and numbered from an edition of 30.
In 1973 Hockney spent time in Paris making etchings with the printer Aldo Crommelynck, Simplified Faces is a witty exercise from that period. Each of the four faces has the same features, a vertical nose, two eyes and a small mouth, but the head is a different geometric shape. The features are drawn in coloured crayon-like line, with pink cheeks and fine detail in the eyes.
The humour comes from the labels. Beneath each face are two yellow-highlighted words which do not match the shapes. The rectangular face is labelled “diamond”, the round face “triangle”, the diamond-shaped face “circle” and the triangular face “sphere”. The solids behind the faces, a black half-sphere, a blue block, a striped pyramid and a green cylinder, are labelled “cylinder”, “pyramid”, “cube” and “rectangle”. The title is written below in a small cursive hand, with the state number beside it.
The print plays with the conventions of a children’s primer and with the problem of representing a face. It also shows the delicate colour that Hockney and Crommelynck achieved by combining several plates.
