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David Hockney (born 1937); Gregory Reading in Kyoto, Feb. 1983; image 1
David Hockney (born 1937); Gregory Reading in Kyoto, Feb. 1983; image 2
Property from a Private Collection, San Mateo
Lot 88

David Hockney
(born 1937)
Gregory Reading in Kyoto, Feb. 1983

7 October 2025, 10:00 PDT
Los Angeles

Sold for US$28,160 inc. premium

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David Hockney (born 1937)

Gregory Reading in Kyoto, Feb. 1983, 1983
Photographic collage in colors mounted to board, signed in white ink, titled, dated and annotated '#13' (from the edition of 20), with margins, framed.
sight 39 1/4 x 42 1/4in (99.7 x 107.3cm)

Footnotes

Provenance
LA Louver, Los Angeles
Acquired directly from above by the present owner

Lot Essay
Hockney is revered for his curiosity as an artist. While he experimented with traditional media such as printmaking and painting, he also ventured into modern forms like photography. He was particularly intrigued by the contrast between the fixed, static perspective of a photograph and the more fluid, multifaceted way we experience the world in daily life.

Using a Polaroid camera, Hockney captured multiple viewpoints of a single subject and assembled them into collages. These "joiners," as he called them, disrupted the conventional, singular perspective offered by the camera, favoring instead a more dynamic and holistic representation of the subject.

In this particular work, the subject is his longtime friend Gregory, shown reading. The collage compels the viewer not to focus solely on Gregory, but to become immersed in the surrounding environment. Although Hockney was initially skeptical of photography as an artistic medium, he began to incorporate traditional printmaking techniques, such as layering, to connect these fractured perspectives.

Through his photocollages, Hockney revitalized the principles of Cubism by using modern technology to reconstruct everyday scenes from fragmented visuals into dynamic compositions. Each Polaroid is taken individually, with specific intent, contributing to the uniqueness and richness of the final creation.

Additional information

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