Slow Rise
Signed Print

While more pastel in tone than many of the other works in the Some More New Prints series, Slow Rise is similar in its composition and style, filled with converging planes of contrasting colours and textures, and resembling a kind of stage set. Here a candy coloured landscape recedes from the view of the shadowy figures or standing stones on the stage below, in a sharp distortion of perspective. The work follows on from the series Some New Paintings and Some New Prints which were both inspired by Hockney’s commission to create sets for the opera Die Frau Ohne Schatten. Commenting on this work the artist said, “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 that vision in full effect, with the ‘internal landscape’ catching our eye and leading us to examine the print from every angle, considering its various Cubist-like perspectives as well as its possible figuration. Playing with depth and tone, texture and mark, Hockney succeeds in pushing lithography to new places and challenging our preconceptions of the medium.