David Hockney|Some New Prints & Some More New Prints

These twelve prints were nearly all of Hockney's work at Gemini G.E.L. when he returned to the workshop in 1993, nine years after his previous prints there. They came as his painting turned towards abstraction.

After the 'Very New Paintings'

Hockney began the 'Very New Paintings' in Malibu in 1992, once he had finished his set designs for 'Die Frau ohne Schatten' at the Royal Opera in London. The canvases leave out figures altogether. He said they "take time to unfold", and that "the viewer can roam freely within them, finding his or her own space." They went on show in New York and in Saltaire, Yorkshire, in 1993, the year he made these prints. The two sets can be read as carrying that near-abstract way of building space into print.

Making the prints

Most of the prints combine lithography with screenprint, which pushes ink through a stencil. 'Above And Beyond' is a screenprint alone. All twelve were printed on Arches 88 paper by teams of Gemini printers, with as many as seven working on a single image. Two of the prints, 'Four Part Splinge' and 'Going Round', are spread across four sheets. Together those sheets measure about 124 x 167 cm, roughly twice the height and width of the single-sheet prints.

At auction

At Phillips London in September 2026, 'Blue Hang Cliff' sold for £49,020 and 'Going Out' for £30,960. 'Four Part Splinge' had made $50,800 at Phillips New York in October 2023. Prices for a single image have varied widely: at Phillips London, 'Pushing Up' made £18,900 in September 2022 and £5,715 in September 2024, and 'Above And Beyond' made £39,060 in the 2022 sale. All these figures include fees.