Number One Chair
Signed Print

Here we see Hockney returning to one of his favourite subjects, the chair. Such is the artist’s talent at depicting these items of household furniture that every single one of his chairs is infused with its own personality. In Number One Chair we find a wicker chair of the kind you might find in a conservatory, topped with a pink cushion covered in floral pattern. The texture of the chair is heightened by its setting on floorboards which appear to have been cut up and rearranged so that they meet at crazed angles, adding a sense of unease and movement to the scene. In the background more furniture recedes into the distance, picked out with simple lines and playing second fiddle to the ‘Number One Chair’ which has been lovingly drawn in detail and coloured a vibrant yellow. The work is part of the Moving Focus series which saw Hockney experimenting with perspective and movement in a portfolio of lithographs which spans three years during the mid-80s. Influenced by Cubism as well as his previous photographic collages, the works show his unfailing ability to challenge the limits of medium and his constant aim to show the world how his eye sees, how he ‘feels space’.