David Hockney

Only David Hockney has worked in all four Ken Tyler workshops. The English–born artist (1937) has spent many years, on and off, living in America—where some of his most exciting prints have been made; where the discovery of a new technique, a new method of printmaking, often served as a catalyst to explore a new artistic focus.

The first group of prints Tyler and Hockney made together was a set of six colour lithographs, A Hollywood Collection, 1965, at the Gemini Ltd workshop on Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles. Each print is in the form of a different genre of painting—a still life, a landscape, a portrait, a cityscape, a nude and an abstract—an instant art collection.

Hockney and Tyler collaborated again in 1973. Drawing directly onto the stone or plate suited the artist, and he was given a ‘complete palette of colour’ and a ‘complete palette of drawing techniques’; and the subtlety of the washes he could achieve were of a kind that he had never been offered before. He produced a group of accomplished, evocative and sometimes witty colour lithographs, the Weather series, with references to Japanese prints.

On a vist to Tyler’s Bedford workshop in 1978, Hockney discovered paper pulp. After some experimentation he found he could ‘paint’ with this medium and this experience furthered his gift as a colourist and extended the possibilities of paper work. For example, he developed multi–sheet compositions, including A diver, paper pool 17, 1978.

In the mid–1980s, Hockney made a series of 29 prints in colour lithography consisting of interior views and chairs, views of a Mexican hotel, and portraits, including collaged portraits of Celia Birtwell and Gregory Evans. Titled the Moving Focus series, it is a summation of Hockney’s obsession with space—the depiction of space, the use of reverse perspective, the experience of being within a space, and exploring multipoint perspective. In this series the artist drew from lessons learned from his study of Cubism, and his own set designs for opera.

Jane Kinsman

EXHIBITIONS

• Lichtenstein to Warhol: The Kenneth Tyler Collection, 2019–20
• California Cool: Art in Los Angeles, 1960s-70s, 2018–19
• David Hockney: Prints, 2017–18
• Printed light, 2004
• The Big Americans, 2002–03
• Hockney Masterworks in Paint / Stella & Tyler Masterworks in Print, 1999–2000
• Lasting impressions: lithography as art, part II, 18 June – 31 July 1988
• Ken Tyler: printer extraordinary, 6 June – 13 October 1985
• Paperwork, 13 October 1982 – 16 May 1983
• David Hockney prints: a touring exhibition from the collection of the Australian National Gallery, 1976

VIDEO

• David Hockney

NATIONAL GALLERY PUBLICATIONS

• Lichtenstein to Warhol: The Kenneth Tyler Collection, Jane Kinsman, exhibition catalogue, 2019
• California Cool, exhibition catalogue, 2018
• David Hockney: Prints, Jane Kinsman, exhibition catalogue, 2017
• Workshop: The Kenneth Tyler Collection, Jane Kinsman (ed.), 2015
• The Art of Collaboration: The Big Americans, Jane Kinsman, 2002
• Ken Tyler Printer Extraordinary, 1985
• Paperwork, Pat Gilmour and Anne Wilsford, 1982
• David Hockney Prints, selected from the collection of the Australian National Gallery, 1976

TYLER GRAPHICS PUBLICATIONS

• Caribbean Tea Time 1985-1987
• 23 Lithographs 1978-1980
• Paper Pools, project notes, 1978
• Paper Pools, 1978

STORIES

• Art + Sound: David Hockney playlist
• David Hockney's cancellation proofs
• David Hockney prints: the National Gallery of Australia Collection

LEARNING RESOURCES

• David Hockney: Prints

RELATED LINKS

• The David Hockney Foundation