<b>SNOW WITHOUT COLOR</b> / David Hockney1973<b>SOLD</b></em>

Details

David Hockney is one of the world’s top contemporary artists. Born in the English countryside, Hockney completed his art training in London and soon came into the company of well-known artists, musicians, actors, and performers. Hockney quickly garnered attention as an artist by selling out several one-man shows throughout London.  After this initial success, Hockney moved to California in 1966 and started producing paintings of people and their homes, focusing on swimming pools; in so doing, he executed some of his most iconic work, including A Bigger Splash, 1967.

Hockney went on to master an artistic style all his own. Mixed with elements of Pop, minimalism, and realism, his artwork deeply reflected the times in which they were produced. His work influenced and contributed to the greater visual culture—directly speaking to large swaths of the population through popular culture and art connoisseurs and critics worldwide. Hockney’s work extended far beyond the confines of painting, as he became known as a master draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. 

Hockney experimented with printmaking as early as a lithograph Self-Portrait in 1954 and worked in etchings during his art training in London. During his stay in Los Angeles, Hockney collaborated with the printing studio Gemini GEL from 1965–1973. It was at this time that Hockney became fascinated by Japanese graphic art and, in particular, Japanese prints. Hockney’s fascination with Japanese aesthetics and woodblock prints was largely due to their reverence for nature and their compelling representation of the seasons.

Hockney’s Snow Without Color, 1973, is a direct response to this fascination with woodblock prints. Produced as a large-scale lithograph, the design reads like a 20th-century Japanese print. The flat muted plane is populated by hills as a snowfall adds to the growing snow cover throughout the design. There are three stones in the foreground that appear artfully placed, as if recalling Japanese stone gardens, while the branches at right bend gracefully into the composition with the mounting weight of the snow. The print’s coloration also mimics Japanese printing effects, particularly bokashi or color gradation, as it is effectively used on the lower portion of each hill. The design is contemplative, soft, and as Hockney pointed out “is the most Japanese in feeling”.

Connoisseur's Note

Hockney’s Snow Without Color, 1973, was produced in a single edition of 38 impressions. This print is a stand-alone work and is a monochrome variant of his Snow, 1973, also offered in this exhibition.  

The color version of this design was produced for a larger body of work, The Weather Series, 1973, depicting the four seasons. This color variant is produced entirely in white and shades of gray. This variant is quite sought after by collectors as it was never reissued and remains the rarest of the four designs, produced in a sole edition of 38 impressions.

Of Hockney’s four designs In his The Weather Series, 1973, Snow is the most sought after design by collectors and is illustrated the most frequently in publications that reference Hockney’s printed work. The artist has added in pencil the print’s title, date, and edition as well as signing the work at the lower margin.

Hockney currently holds the world record for the highest price paid for a living contemporary artist at auction, achieving 90.3 million dollars. He is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century.