A Celebration in Three Works
As David Hockney approaches his 88th birthday on 9th July, Shapero Modern celebrates the artistic journey of one of Britain’s most influential and technically adventurous artists. Throughout his career, Hockney has continually pushed the boundaries of the traditional artistic mediums of painting, photography and printmaking, expanding and redefining each one.
To mark this occasion, we are highlighting three works from our gallery that exemplify Hockney’s evolution across the years: from chromogenic photography in the 1970s, to intimate etchings in the 1990s, and finally, to his ground-breaking iPad drawings that helped to usher in a new era in contemporary visual art.
David Hockney, Untitled (Sprinklers), 1976
The chromogenic print Untitled (Sprinklers) demonstrates the artist’s experimentation with photographic processes during the 1970s. The cropped image of a sprinkler system bathed in warm Californian sunlight creates a distinctly domestic picture of American suburban life, a subject that often captured Hockney’s interest. Beneath its apparent simplicity lies his playful approach to visual storytelling, encouraging viewers to reconsider their perceptions of time and memory. This period marked his gradual move away from pure painting and towards a more multidisciplinary practice, with photography playing a pivotal role.
By 1998, Hockney had returned to printmaking with renewed vigour. Panama Hat with a Bow Tie on a Chair reflects both his deep affection for portraiture and his mastery of etching and aquatint. The careful arrangement of hat and bowtie on an empty chair alludes to the sitter’s presence through absence—a tender symbol of loss and memory. This composition showcases Hockney’s ability to use everyday objects to evoke powerful emotions and layered meanings.
Hockney’s iPad drawings represent a radical departure from traditional artistic methods. In Waiting at York 180, the artist harnesses the immediacy and spontaneity of digital tools to embrace bold colour, gesture, and stylised form. While contemporary in execution, the scene retains the timeless quality of Hockney’s early work. It is a testament to his fearless engagement with new media, continuing to explore how we see and what we choose to record.
These three works—spanning photography, printmaking, and digital drawing—demonstrate the remarkable arc of David Hockney’s career: one defined not by a singular style, but by an enduring curiosity and willingness to evolve.
