Above And Beyond
Signed Print

A pinwheel flower sits atop a red sucker, appearing to send radar signals into the sky; an engorged tornado sweeps up planes of colour in its trajectory, causing swirls of yellow marks like fresh hay; a green tube like the kind found in a swimming pool appears to protrude from the composition. Areas of dark shadow contrast with the bright colours, bringing depth and turmoil and adding to the sense of movement that pervades this scene. Bordering on abstract the work can be described as an ‘internal landscape’, of the kind Hockney had been painting and recreating in prints since he was commissioned to design sets for the opera Die Frau Ohne Schatten, of which he remarked, “These started simply and grew more and more complex. I soon realized that what I was doing was making internal landscapes, using different marks and textures to create space, so that the viewer wanders around.'' Here we see him drawing on the influence of these earlier paintings – as well as the earlier print series Some New Prints – to create Cubist-like compositions, fragmented and dynamic, in order to reimagine the possibilities of landscape in the ’90s.