Picture Of A Still Life That Has An Elaborate Silver Frame
Signed Print

Dating from 1965, Picture Of A Still Life That Has An Elaborate Silver Frame is part of one of the first series of prints Hockney embarked upon with the famous Gemini print workshop upon moving to LA. While he had worked mostly with etching at art college, this collaboration allowed him to test new mediums and to work with colour in a way that was closer to his painting practice. Here we see him taking a classic subject from the history of art – and from his own oeuvre – and subverting it with a subtle twist. A pared back still life of two vases of flowers shown on a grey table is given another dimension of meaning by the addition of the elaborate silver frame of the title. Despite its detail and 3-dimensionality, the frame remains part of the sheet, creating a trompe l’oeil effect that recalls the long running tradition in art history where the artist attempts to trick the viewer by making us question the boundary between the real world and the image. Hockney uses this technique throughout the series, offering a meta commentary on representation and collecting, fact and fiction.