On November 15, 2018, in New York at Christie's, David Hockney's 1972 painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) was sold for the colossal sum of 90.3 million $. We don't know the buyer. It is the most expensive work ever awarded for a living artist . Hockney had sold it for around 20,000 dollars in 1972. The previous record for the British painter, born in 1937 and who lives between England, France, and California, amounted in 2017 to 28.4 million $ for a painting from a later and less popular period.
This record is, in fact, due to several factors linked not only to the work itself, but also to external elements. David Hockney is one of the most celebrated artists in the world of painters, who remain classic, figurative, and play with mastery with color. His target audience is, therefore, broader than other contemporary painters considered avant-garde.
Museum star
His career and international museum recognition peaked between 2017 and 2018 with a retrospective organized at the Center Pompidou in Paris , Tate Britain in London, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. As for the painting it is of a spectacular size (213 x 305 cm), and it is part of the artist's most appreciated period, when he left dark England to revel in the beauty of Californian colors and describe it.
Painted after a breakup, it transcribes the distress of a man (the artist underwater) observed by his ex-boyfriend, who is by the pool. Peter Schlesinger is well known since he appeared in the film by Jack Hazan dedicated to Hockney and became legendary A Bigger Splash.
For art lovers, the work, when seen up close, is a concentrate of technical prowess. In the background, the mountains are made of an infinity of small blue dots punctuated with red. In the foreground, there is the famous swimming pool, Californian leitmotif. Hockney took very long hours to create this azure which occupies more than a third of the canvas and which gives the impression that the reflections of the water are moving.
No reserve price
This painting was sold by a connoisseur of the art market, English businessman Joe Lewis, which held majority shares in Christie's until 1998. The very early announcement of the painting's marketing had a worldwide impact both because of the nature of the work and the gigantic sum expected for this one. Last week, the auction house announced again that the painting was sold without a reserve price, contrary to all practices for this value level.
Le Point. Article written by Judith Benhamou-Huet .
Interesting link documentation on Hockney in Cnn Styles https://www.cnn.com/style/article/david-hockney-at-80-interview-los-angeles/index.html