An Image Of Gregory
Signed Print

For this portrait of Gregory Evans, Hockney’s one time lover and constant muse, the artist has split the subject’s body in two, dividing it between two frames like a magician cutting his assistant in half. In the top frame Evans’s face is shown both in profile and straight on, and he is barely recognisable from earlier prints except for his angelic curls. Here he takes on the guise of an aristocratic gentleman, wearing a silk scarf at his neck and a loud pinstripe suit. He holds a cigarette in his hand and as we look down to the lower frame we notice he has two more hands, resting at either side of his body on the chair. This, as well as the multiple perspectives incorporated into the subject’s face, inform us of the Cubist influence held in the work, along with the abstract background made up of segments of bold colour. Recalling Picasso’s portraits of Dora Maar the work is one of many in the Moving Focus series where Hockney plays with perspective and abstraction to add another layer to his portraits of friends and companions. Reminiscent of his photo collage series the works attempt to move the focus away from a single viewpoint, in order to reflect how the artist himself sees the world, and to, in his words, ‘feel space’.