Walking Past Two Chairs
Signed Print

Two chairs with woven seats and curliculed backs sit next to a table. A blue vase holds two stamps of pink flowers in full bloom. This captivating composition brings together many of the themes Hockney has returned to throughout his career, from the still life, to studies of chairs and flowers. But here something is off. The artist deliberately plays with perspective to make the scene a disorienting one; the seats of the chairs appear distorted, as if seen from a sharp angle, the floorboards have been cut up and rearranged to appear fragmented and uneven. The whole scene is tilted towards us, as if to exaggerate the viewpoint and unsettle the viewer. Including screen printing as well as lithography, Walking Past Two Chairs is a softer toned version of many of the other studies of chairs and interiors in the Moving Focus series. Dominated by pale yellows, blues and greens it recalls a summer afternoon. Dating from 1984 to 1986 Moving Focus sees Hockney embracing Cubist influences in his work, as well as incorporating lessons from his earlier photographic collage series in which he also played with presenting multiple viewpoints in the same image.