Celia With Chair
Celia With Chair
Signed Print
David Hockney
POA
This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
Screenprint, 1986
Signed Print Edition of 50
Critical Review
Celia With Chair (1986) is a signed homemade print on Arches paper by David Hockney that reflects the artist’s continued need to rediscover his signature themes across a variety of styles and techniques. The work depicts a chair and an easel upholding canvas with Celia Birtwell’s likeness, all objects set in an enigmatic room with red walls. Domesticity, chairs, and the motive of artwork within an artwork have long been characteristic of Hockney’s idiom and this 1986 eclectic print brings them all together.
The famous fashion designer’s face sprawls over the entire surface of the small canvas in a way that renders it flat and otherworldly. Standing on three legs and consisting of two separate outlines that do not fully overlap with one another, the chair next to the easel adds to the eerie atmosphere of the room. The title identifies the mysterious-looking object as a chair but its abstract rendition encourages the viewer to think beyond the given clues. The geometric pattern on the floor contrasts with the childlike style of drawing with crayon evoked by Hockney’s frenetic use of red colour on the walls. Given its unusual mixture of styles and strong links with the Surrealist imagery, the print showcases the ever-evolving nature of Hockney’s approach to his favourite themes and subjects.
Celia With Chair belongs to Home Made Prints, a thematically diverse collection of works including Self Portrait (1986), Grey Blooms (1986) or Man Reading Stendhal (1986), all executed by Hockney on an office copy machine. The artist has said in the context of photocopying that inspired Home Made Prints: ‘In fact, this is the closest I’ve ever come in printing to what it’s like to paint: I can put something down, evaluate it, alter it, revise it, all in a matter of seconds.’
