David Hockney|Tyler Graphics Lithographs (1990–91)

These seven lithographs belong to the third decade of Hockney's work with the printer Kenneth Tyler. The two first worked together at Gemini in Los Angeles in 1965, and Hockney (1937–2026) was the only artist to work at all four of Tyler's workshops. He later said: "With Kenneth Tyler nothing was impossible."

The prints

In 1987 Tyler moved Tyler Graphics from Bedford Village to a purpose-built workshop in Mount Kisco, New York, where these prints were published. 'The Wave (Lithograph)' came two years after Hockney bought a house in Malibu, on the Pacific, in 1988. Of the ocean there, he said: "Here I'm on the edge of the largest swimming-pool in the world." Among the other prints, 'Table Flowable' sets an apple on a yellow tabletop beneath looping red and green lines, and 'Rampant' fills its sheet with pale blue curling shapes inside a purple scribbled border. The seven sheets fall into three size groups, all landscape. 'Four Flowers In Still Life' and 'The Wave (Lithograph)' are about 69 x 97 cm. 'White Lines Dancing In Printing Ink', 'Rampant' and 'The New And The Old And The New' are about 75 x 100 to 76 x 108 cm. 'Table Flowable' and 'Twelve Fifteen' are the largest, at about 112 x 145 cm. The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis added impressions of all seven to its Tyler Graphics Archive in 1991 and 1992. In 2003 Tyler Graphics gave the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York proofs that include 'White Lines Dancing In Printing Ink' and 'The New And The Old And The New'.

At auction

'Twelve Fifteen' sold for $22,860 at Phillips New York in April 2023, against $21,250 at the same house in July 2020. An artist's proof of 'The Wave (Lithograph)' made $43,750 at Phillips New York in October 2019. Another impression had made £33,750 at Phillips London in June 2017, in the sale where 'Four Flowers In Still Life' made £11,250. 'White Lines Dancing In Printing Ink' sold for $4,375 at Phillips New York in October 2018. All these figures include fees.

Before and after

Hockney's earlier prints with Tyler include the '23 Lithographs 1978–1980 (Tyler Graphics)', made at Bedford Village, where eleven of them show Tyler's swimming pool, and the 'Moving Focus' lithographs of the mid-1980s. In 1993 he was back with Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles, which published his 'Some New Prints', including prints that combine lithography with screenprint.