Dark Mist
Signed Print

Similarly to Mist, another work from this 1973 portfolio by David Hockney, entitled The Weather series, Dark Mist shows an LA street suffused in a thick fog. Three palm trees loom out of the mist, their silhouettes and monochrome palette making them foreboding in the absence of sun. The building that can also be found in Mist here too becomes more threatening with the addition of bars at its window and dark crosshatching to its facade. The first palm tree is the darkest, its inky blackness providing an anchor to the composition, while the two behind it seem to fade into the distance, the last almost becoming one with the fog. As well as an atmospheric study of weather, the work can also be read as an homage to Monet who painted a view of poplar trees using a similar perspective. The work also recalls some of Hockney’s later work, when he returned to Yorkshire and painted trees in his native landscape. Perhaps most of all however, this work is a nod to the Japanese prints Hockney had become familiar with while visiting Japan just two years earlier. In the masterful depiction of mist on the lithographic stone we are reminded of the many wonders achieved with the woodblock by masters such as Hiroshige and Hokusai who are known for their delicate depictions of snow and rain.