The Old Guitarist
Signed Print

Perhaps Hockney’s most overt homage to Picasso, The Old Guitarist is a direct copy of the Spanish artist’s 1903 painting, one of the most famous from his Blue Period. While the central panel is a faithful reproduction of the painting, steeped in blue ink, Hockney has chosen to frame it with a series of more lighthearted drawings of figures, still lifes and geometric shapes that recall the Cubist aesthetic of Picasso’s later periods, updated for the ’70s. The painter’s name is emblazoned in red at the top of the work and the title and date of the painting is at the bottom in celebration of the importance of Picasso's work in Hockney’s oeuvre. While the subject matter is an obvious reference to the Spanish master, Hockney also used the medium to pay homage to Picasso. All the works in The Blue Guitar series are made using the sugar lift aquatint technique which he learned under the tutelage of Aldo Crommelynck, Picasso's master printer when he was invited to contribute to a series of prints on the occasion of Picasso’s death in 1973. This new technique meant Hockney was able to introduce more colour into his etchings, which had previously been largely monochrome.