Artist: David Hockney
Title: "Figures with Still Life" (from The Blue Guitar Series)
Year: 1977
Medium: Etching with Aquatint on Inveresk Mould-Made Paper
Sheet size: 21.65" x 18.9"
Plate Size: 16.75" x 13.5"
Edition Size: 200 Numbered, 35 Artists Proof (XXXV)
Edition Number: 80/200
Inscription: Signed "David Hockney"
Documentation: Includes Gallery Certificate of Authenticity
avid Hockney's Figures with Still Life belongs to The Blue Guitar, a portfolio of 20 color etchings created in 1977. The series interprets themes from Wallace Stevens's poem The Man with the Blue Guitar, which reflects on the creative act and the artist's role in reshaping reality through imagination. Rather than illustrating the poem directly, Hockney approaches it as a visual meditation, combining personal and art historical references with formal experimentation.
In this composition, two figures engage across a modest still life of bottle, glass, and plate. One figure appears as a linearly structured silhouette built from sharply angled planes, the other rendered with expressive, gestural marks. The contrast between these figures sets up a dialogue between abstraction and figuration, between structured analysis and sensual immediacy. Spatial cues—the tabletop, curtain-like texture of the cloth, and background hatchings—offer a subtle framework, but perspective remains deliberately ambiguous.
Figures with Still Life exemplifies Hockney's interest in visual perception and pictorial language. His use of colored line and tonal layering, developed in collaboration with master printer Aldo Crommelynck, reflects both technical mastery and conceptual depth. The resulting image is both playful and contemplative, inviting viewers to consider how meaning is constructed in the spaces between looking, remembering, and imagining.
This impression is from the numbered edition of 200, with an additional 35 artist's proofs. It is hand-signed and numbered 80/200 in pencil on the lower front margin. The purchase includes a certificate of authenticity from Modern Artifact.
About David Hockney
David Hockney, born in Bradford, England, in 1937, is a leading voice in contemporary art whose influence spans continents, generations, and media. Over a career of more than sixty years, Hockney has become known for his bright, expressive use of color and his experimental approach to image-making, from painting and photography to digital technology.
Hockney began his formal training at the Bradford School of Art, followed by the Royal College of Art in London, where he stood out for his originality and confidence. He was quickly recognized as a key figure in the emerging Pop Art movement of the early 1960s, though his work always transcended easy categorization. His early pieces—often personal and intimate—explored themes of identity, desire, and domestic life.
In 1964, Hockney relocated to Los Angeles, a city that became central to his creative life. The light, architecture, and culture of Southern California profoundly influenced his aesthetic. He painted coolly composed portraits and swimming pool scenes that have since become some of the most iconic works of 20th-century art, including A Bigger Splash and American Collectors.
Hockney's practice is defined by constant reinvention. In the 1980s, he turned to photography, creating "joiners"—photo collages that present scenes from multiple viewpoints, challenging the conventions of single-point perspective. Later, he adopted the iPad and iPhone as tools for drawing, producing vibrant digital works that reflect his enduring interest in technology and perception.
Hockney is also a thinker as well as a maker. His book Secret Knowledge (2001) offered a controversial theory that Old Master painters used optical devices in their work—a topic that sparked lively debate among historians and artists alike.
He has designed sets for operas and ballets, contributed to printmaking and stagecraft, and exhibited globally in major retrospectives. Awarded the Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth II, Hockney continues to work actively from his home in Normandy, France, where he paints expansive landscapes and explores new digital projects.
Through it all, David Hockney remains devoted to the idea of looking—really looking—as a central act of artmaking. His legacy lies not only in his groundbreaking style, but in his invitation to see the world with curiosity, openness, and joy.