DAVID HOCKNEY | UNTITLED

Gallery Yves Arman, New York

Christie's New York, 2 November 1984, Lot 198

Private Collection, New York (acquired at the above sale)

“But if that early self portrait is unusual in its hesitancy, it may provide a clue to the passion that has been at the core of Hockney’s success: that to understand that world he needed to understand himself and those closest to him – family, friends and lovers. And his way to achieve this has been through portraiture. Portraits are not only central to his investigation of the world, they have also been a crucial part of his many creative endeavors, including in the spheres of perspective, colour theory and aesthetics.”

(Howgate & Shapiro, David Hockey Portraits, New Haven 2006, p. 7)