Old Rink Rank
Old Rink Rank
Signed Print
David Hockney
23 x 27cm, Edition of 100, Etching, 1970
£1,800-£2,700
$3,450-$5,000 Market Value Indicator
$3,350-$5,000 Market Value Indicator
¥16,000-¥24,000 Market Value Indicator
€2,150-€3,250 Market Value Indicator
$19,000-$28,000 Market Value Indicator
¥380,000-¥570,000 Market Value Indicator
$2,400-$3,600 Market Value Indicator
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Meaning & Analysis
Old Rink Rank is a 1970 etching by David Hockney, showing a bearded old man kneeling and raising a knife toward a young woman who stands with her hand lifted. Both figures are drawn in white outline against a deep black ground, lit as if from a stage. The work is signed and published in an edition of 100.
Hockney’s early etchings often took their subjects from literature and fairy tale. This print draws on the Grimm tale of Old Rinkrank, in which a princess is trapped by a malevolent old man inside a glass mountain. The story’s menace is its subject here. The old man’s wild beard, the raised blade and the princess’s raised palm are drawn with clarity and economy. The narrative is told in a single gesture.
The technique is notable. Most of the plate is aquatinted to a deep, velvety black. The figures are reserved in white, their forms described by fine etched line and light patterns on the clothing. A bright patch of paper lies behind the woman’s head. The ground beneath the figures is drawn as a faint stage floor, so that the scene reads as theatre. The princess is shown in profile with a neat bob, her dress and sleeve carry delicate patterning.
Hockney was a keen theatre-goer and went on to design opera sets in the 1970s and 1980s, the staged quality of this print anticipates that work. The edition of 100 matches the size of the earlier Grimm portfolio.
