- 156
DAVID HOCKNEY | The Salesman
Estimate
150,000 - 200,000 GBP
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Description
- David Hockney
- The Salesman
- signed, titled and dated 63 on the overlap; inscribed by John Kasmin on the overlap
- oil and printed paper collage on canvas
- 61.5 by 31 cm. 24 by 12 in.
Provenance
Kasmin Limited, London
Richard Burton, London
Galerie Beyeler, Basel
Private Collection, Europe
Christie's, London, 23 October 2002, Lot 101
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Richard Burton, London
Galerie Beyeler, Basel
Private Collection, Europe
Christie's, London, 23 October 2002, Lot 101
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Condition
Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is lighter and brighter and the blue is lighter and has less magenta undertones in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. All collaged elements are stable. Visible only when inspected out of its frame are some tension cracks to all four extreme overturn edges, some of which have associated specks of loss, most notably towards the lower and upper left hand corners. Further close inspection reveals some light handling and rub marks to all four extreme edges and two very short and faint vertical cracks towards the lower centre of the right hand edge. Very close inspection reveals some light surface dirt and a few minute media accretions in isolated places throughout, as well as some light discolouration to the glue residue on the collaged element, which is inherent to the artist's choice of media. Inspection under ultra-violet light reveals a tiny spot of inpainting towards the centre of the upper edge.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
Few individuals have exerted such broad an influence on the trends of fashion and contemporary art as Marc Jacobs. Considered one of the most important couturiers of the last three decades, Jacobs’s unrelenting commitment to his creative vision has earned him immense appreciation, As both head designer of his eponymous fashion label and formerly as creative director of Louis Vuitton between 1997 and 2013. It is of little surprise therefore, that Jacobs’s discerning eye and fastidious taste for exceptional quality is reflected in his esteemed collection of contemporary art.
In an impeccable array of masterworks by period-defining artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lucio Fontana, David Hockney and Gerhard Richter, the Collection of Marc Jacobs brings together an iconoclastic and eclectic host of works that testifies to the extraordinary character of its ensemblier.
Demonstrating the designer’s undeniable passion for contemporary artworks of the highest order, Marc Jacobs’s collection is typified by examples as diverse as Richter’s Säbelantilope (1966), Jeff Koons’s Yorkshire Terriers (1991) and Takashi Murakami’s The Double Helix (2002), and brings together a plethora of seminal works by adventurous, global art stars. As well as displaying an exuberant variety, each work attests to an individual depth and respective importance that defines Jacobs’s exceptionally curated collection. From Koons’s Yorkshire Terriers – central to his significant Made in Heaven series – to Hockney’s The Salesman (1963) – a sublime example of the artist’s early paintings – these works exhibit an expert appreciation of the vanguard art movements of the last half-century. Assembled with the creativity and connoisseurship of one of the most celebrated arbiters of contemporary taste, this selection of works charts a panorama of hugely influential artists, curated by one of the most pioneering aesthetes of recent times.
David Hockney’s The Salesman from 1963 is a superlative example of the artist’s renowned early paintings. Executed one year after his graduation from the Royal College of Art, the present work characterises the artistic milieu of London in the early 1960s, of which Hockney was a key protagonist. Conversant with the significant work of R. B. Kitaj, Francis Bacon, Jean Dubuffet, and Art Informel, The Salesman identifies Hockney’s principle motifs and compositional cues – citing his formative touchstones, and anticipating the theatrical dynamism that would come to define his output for decades to come.
“England in the mid-1960s was experiencing unprecedented euphoria as British reserve gave way to Dionysian revel” writes Martin Friedman, and “London was the scene of a high-voltage, gleefully anti-establishment revolution in the visual arts” (Martin Friedman, ‘Painting into Theatre’, in: John Cox, John Dexter, Martin Friedman and Stephen Spender, Eds., Hockney Paints the Stage, London 1983, p. 7). Synthesising new-wave formal interests – combining an idiosyncratic draughtsmanship with an austere command of paint synonymous with Art Brut and Picasso, here Hockney assembles a dramatic vignette of timely consequence. The present work describes the “curtain call” of the trilby-wearing salesman, casting a long shadow in the age of the Beatles and Carnaby Street fashion. Hockney’s period of painting in the renascent London of the 1960s was, however, short-lived. The artist travelled for the first time to Los Angeles in 1964, a journey that would dramatically shift his painterly style away from the collaged dramas of his earlier works, towards a naturalist cinematography that is epitomised by his double portraits of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
A foundational work from a key period in Hockney’s oeuvre, The Salesman evinces a palpable interest in the theatrical potentialities of painting. In such works as George Lawson and Wayne Sleep, 1972-75 – now in the Tate Collection – what emerges in a distilled form is Hockney’s sterling ability to construct scenic space and produce narrative passages of dialogue through composition. The artist’s close connection with the theatre began in his childhood – taking in variety shows at the Bradford Alhambra with his father – but it wouldn’t be until 1966 that Hockney would first foray into production, after being invited by Ian Cuthbertson of London’s Royal Court Theatre to design the sets and costumes for Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi. To Hockney, this was a natural development of his interests: “I had played with those ideas before and thought of all my pictures as drama. Even the way I was painting at that time was a kind of theatrical exaggeration” (Ibid., p. 11).
The Salesman prefigures the Hollywood polish of the artist’s later portraits, describing, in earnest, Hockney’s nuanced orchestration of dramatic staging in an illustrative verve. The present work demonstrates not only the artist’s kinship to mid-century British and European painting, but also the elemental compositional devices that Hockney would formalise and build-on over his hugely illustrious and massively acclaimed career.
In an impeccable array of masterworks by period-defining artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lucio Fontana, David Hockney and Gerhard Richter, the Collection of Marc Jacobs brings together an iconoclastic and eclectic host of works that testifies to the extraordinary character of its ensemblier.
Demonstrating the designer’s undeniable passion for contemporary artworks of the highest order, Marc Jacobs’s collection is typified by examples as diverse as Richter’s Säbelantilope (1966), Jeff Koons’s Yorkshire Terriers (1991) and Takashi Murakami’s The Double Helix (2002), and brings together a plethora of seminal works by adventurous, global art stars. As well as displaying an exuberant variety, each work attests to an individual depth and respective importance that defines Jacobs’s exceptionally curated collection. From Koons’s Yorkshire Terriers – central to his significant Made in Heaven series – to Hockney’s The Salesman (1963) – a sublime example of the artist’s early paintings – these works exhibit an expert appreciation of the vanguard art movements of the last half-century. Assembled with the creativity and connoisseurship of one of the most celebrated arbiters of contemporary taste, this selection of works charts a panorama of hugely influential artists, curated by one of the most pioneering aesthetes of recent times.
David Hockney’s The Salesman from 1963 is a superlative example of the artist’s renowned early paintings. Executed one year after his graduation from the Royal College of Art, the present work characterises the artistic milieu of London in the early 1960s, of which Hockney was a key protagonist. Conversant with the significant work of R. B. Kitaj, Francis Bacon, Jean Dubuffet, and Art Informel, The Salesman identifies Hockney’s principle motifs and compositional cues – citing his formative touchstones, and anticipating the theatrical dynamism that would come to define his output for decades to come.
“England in the mid-1960s was experiencing unprecedented euphoria as British reserve gave way to Dionysian revel” writes Martin Friedman, and “London was the scene of a high-voltage, gleefully anti-establishment revolution in the visual arts” (Martin Friedman, ‘Painting into Theatre’, in: John Cox, John Dexter, Martin Friedman and Stephen Spender, Eds., Hockney Paints the Stage, London 1983, p. 7). Synthesising new-wave formal interests – combining an idiosyncratic draughtsmanship with an austere command of paint synonymous with Art Brut and Picasso, here Hockney assembles a dramatic vignette of timely consequence. The present work describes the “curtain call” of the trilby-wearing salesman, casting a long shadow in the age of the Beatles and Carnaby Street fashion. Hockney’s period of painting in the renascent London of the 1960s was, however, short-lived. The artist travelled for the first time to Los Angeles in 1964, a journey that would dramatically shift his painterly style away from the collaged dramas of his earlier works, towards a naturalist cinematography that is epitomised by his double portraits of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
A foundational work from a key period in Hockney’s oeuvre, The Salesman evinces a palpable interest in the theatrical potentialities of painting. In such works as George Lawson and Wayne Sleep, 1972-75 – now in the Tate Collection – what emerges in a distilled form is Hockney’s sterling ability to construct scenic space and produce narrative passages of dialogue through composition. The artist’s close connection with the theatre began in his childhood – taking in variety shows at the Bradford Alhambra with his father – but it wouldn’t be until 1966 that Hockney would first foray into production, after being invited by Ian Cuthbertson of London’s Royal Court Theatre to design the sets and costumes for Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi. To Hockney, this was a natural development of his interests: “I had played with those ideas before and thought of all my pictures as drama. Even the way I was painting at that time was a kind of theatrical exaggeration” (Ibid., p. 11).
The Salesman prefigures the Hollywood polish of the artist’s later portraits, describing, in earnest, Hockney’s nuanced orchestration of dramatic staging in an illustrative verve. The present work demonstrates not only the artist’s kinship to mid-century British and European painting, but also the elemental compositional devices that Hockney would formalise and build-on over his hugely illustrious and massively acclaimed career.