It Picks Its Way
Signed Print

A strange coloured tube, segmented like a worm, floats through a scribbled doorway, suspended by two rings that hang from the ceiling. Another tube, covered in rings floats just above it. Though the doorway is empty it casts a dark shadow as if it were filled. The ubiquitous tasseled rug of this series floats off in the distance of the composition. The title of the work, It Picks Its Way, perhaps refers to his worm like tube as well as the guitar of the series’ title and yet this remains an extremely enigmatic composition, striking in its minimalism and refusal to explain itself to the viewer. Perhaps the clues lie in a poem; it was inspired by Wallace Stevens’s 1937 work The Blue Guitar which was in turn inspired by the famous 1903 painting by Picasso entitled The Old Guitarist. Hockney first came across the poem while spending time on Fire Island with friends in 1976 and was immediately moved to respond to it, beginning with a series of ink drawings which then became this series of etchings. The portfolio was published with each work as an edition of 200 in 1977 and was also made into a book.