David Hockney and Printmaking

One dynamic and compositionally advanced example of his lithographic practice is from his Moving Focus series. Tyler Dining Room (1984), made using fourteen aluminium plates, is a masterclass in perspective and colour. Made in collaboration with master printer Ken Tyler, this work (as the title suggests) documents the inside of Tyler’s home. Intricate details from the ornate chandelier and abstract artwork that adorns the left wall speak to Hockney’s familiarity with the space and the close companionship with Tyler. The perspective is skewed in a way that offers the viewer more detail than would regularly be given – the table tilted toward us reveals seven placemats laid, perhaps inferring the imminent event of a dinner party, or the implication of one the night before. The chairs that surround the table are indicative of Hockney, the splayed legs and circular forms nodding to his longstanding interest in furniture forms stemming from inspiration from his most revered artists: Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973).

Hockney’s lithographic practice extends into the 1990s where he continues to create abstract compositions.

Etching is an intaglio (incising) printing process. The artist starts with a polished metal surface or plate which is coated with a wax or acid-resistant varnish, referred to as the ‘ground’. From here, the artist uses a sharp tool to incise their desired image into the ‘ground’ revealing the metal plate beneath. Following this, the artist places the plate into an acid bath which attacks the unprotected incisions, eating away at the metal and creating deep grooves. Then, the artist removes the ‘ground’ layer with a solvent, revealing the now-incised metal plate. From here, ink is carefully applied to the plate, ensuring that it penetrates each of the grooves. The plate is then covered with damp paper fed through a heavy roller, transferring the ink from the grooves onto the paper.

Maurice Payne was the most significant collaborator on Hockney’s etchings, with their most lucrative period spanning from the mid-1960s and ending in the late 1970s. Nearly twenty years later, in 1998, Payne set up a print studio in Los Angeles and would take Hockney pre-prepared etching plates for him to work from. He would then bring these back down and produce the prints. He was a significant influence in motivating the longevity of his etching production. Hockney frequently used his etchings to pay direct homage to other artists, such a Van Gogh, Picasso, Constable and Michelangelo, as well as his favourite poets, including T.S. Eliot, Walt Whitman, and C.P. Cavafy.

Hockney experimented further with etching in The Blue Guitar (1976-77), a portfolio inspired by the poem The Man with the Blue Guitar (1937) by the American poet Wallace Stevens. The poem instantly resonated with Hockney, who reflected that ‘It seemed to express something I felt about my own work at the time’. He decided to create a multi-layered artwork which referenced both Stevens’ poem and Picasso’s ‘Blue Period’ painting The Old Guitarist (1903). Hockney notes that the resulting twenty etchings ‘weren’t conceived as literal illustrations of the poem, but as an interpretation of its themes in visual terms.’ To create these etchings, Hockney employed techniques he had learned at the Atelier Crommelynck while living in Paris from 1973 to 1975.

It was here that he worked with Aldo Crommelynck, the master printmaker who produced Picasso’s prints. Hockney learned colour etching using a single plate as well as the complex ‘sugar-lift’ method; an adaptation of the aquatint process which involves a solution made of sugar mixed with gouache. This is applied directly on to the etching plate, resulting in a painterly effect and allowing for greater spontaneity. Before placing the plate in an acid bath, as is typical with the process of etching, the drawing is placed in a bath of water, where sugar dissolves and ‘lifts’ off the plate, leaving the outline of the desired image uncovered. This is then placed in an acid bath, etching the drawing on to the metal plate. Hockney felt that it was apt to use this technique for The Blue Guitar as an homage to the 20th century master who had perfected and applied the technique in many of his most significant prints.

Hockney’s ‘Home Made’ Xerox prints emerged as a groundbreaking innovation in the spring of 1986, aimed at restoring a sense of spontaneity and autonomy to his printmaking practice. After years of collaborating with ateliers and publishers, Hockney yearned for a method that would allow him to create and reproduce art without restriction or external intervention. These Xerox prints were initially a continuation of his photographic collages when Hockney was keen to test the limits of printmaking by using a photocopier to make subtly modified ‘translations’ of whatever was placed on it, rather than precise copies. He was also anxious to expose the misunderstandings surrounding copier machines. As a result of printing mishaps, colour choices or a distinction in texture, he argues that ‘there’s no such thing as a copy … Everything is a translation of something else, no matter how it’s done.’

He devised a process whereby he broke a composition down into its principal colours, drawing each element on a different sheet of paper. This practice stemmed from a realisation that colours were sharpened if printed one at a time. He then took one of these sheets and made enough copies for the edition run. Following this, he would change the Xerox's colour toner and photocopy the second element onto the same sheets. This process would be repeated several times, adding new layers of vibrant colours and shapes to build up a dynamic composition. The artist viewed the Xerox photocopier as a radical piece of art-making technology, harnessing its dual capacity as a camera and printing machine. The home-made prints were a liberating and ‘philosophical’ endeavour for Hockney: a manifestation of the democratisation of art.

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