Aug 13, 2020 - Sale 2544

Sale 2544 - Lot 155

Price Realized: $ 6,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

DAVID HOCKNEY (1937 - )

Collection of Ephemera Including 2 Postcards and an Illustrated Arm Cast
Postcards written in ballpoint pen by Hockney to Mark Hood, New York from Venice, California and Boston. Cast belonging to the actor Gary Roche (d. 1990) illustrated with color felt-tip markers and initialed in red felt tip marker, lower right. Included with signed and dedicated edition of Six Fairy Tales: from the Brothers Grimm with original etchings by David Hockney, signed and dedicated edition of Making It New by Henry Geldzahler, orange Dupioni silk bow tie, several exhibition announcements, gallery cards, exhibition publications, magazines, faxes and photocopies. Various sizes and conditions. 1973-1982.

Provenance: Christopher Hanley Scott (1945-2002), partner to Henry Geldzahler (1935-1994); private collection, New York.
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Additional Details

Throughout his career, Hockney has experimented with new technologies including office equipment. In 1988 Hockney was fascinated with using the fax machine as a method of printing. His project was called The Hollywood Sea Picture Supply Co. "A telephone for the deaf," as Hockney described the machine, it was able to render a range of subtle tones. He also worked to distort images, blend collages, and create multi-page compositional puzzles with detailed instructions for the recipient. Distribution was easy, fast, and popular among Hockney's friends and patrons. Through the following years, Hockney engaged in multiple fax projects. Hockney's Alphabet series was conceived as a collaborative fax project requesting writers to send him text to accompany his illustrated letters to benefit the AIDS Crisis Trust. In 1989, Hockney participated in the São Paulo Biennial exclusively through fax. In a circuitous technique to bypass Brazil's antiquated phone lines, Hockney and his assistant Richard Schmidt faxed Hockney's compositions from room to room in a Los Angeles hotel. After the transmissions and printing, Schmidt handed the giant stacks of paper to Hockney's friend Henry Geldzahler who was waiting in Brazil to assemble the site-specific work which covered an entire wall of the exhibition.