Bora Bora

Medium: Lithograph in colors on Arches 88 paper
Year: 1979
Sheet: 34 3/8 x 47 7/8 inches (87.3 x 121.6 cm)
Edition: 100
Artist’s Proofs: Unknown
Publisher: Tyler Graphics, Mount Kisco, New York
Literature: Tyler Graphics (256); Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (213)

Signed, dated and numbered in pencil

 

Green Bora Bora

Medium: Lithograph in green on Rives BFK paper
Year: 1979
Image: 32 x 39 1/2 inches (81.3 x 100.3 cm)
Sheet: 35×42 inches (88.9 x 106.7 cm)
Edition: 50
Artist’s Proofs: 14
Publisher: Tyler Graphics, Ltd., Bedford, New York
Literature: Tyler Graphics (257), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (214)

Signed, dated and numbered in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp

 

“I have never thought of my painting as advanced,
but I wanted to be involved, if only peripherally, with modernism.”

Bora Bora was created in 1979, a year after the artist moved to the Hollywood Hills. The light and ease of the Los Angeles lifestyle, which he had explored in his early work, can be felt in this work, which captures the swaying palm trees and lapping blue seas of the French Polynesian island in a few fluid strokes.  Inky brushstrokes pick out the movement of clouds in the sky, the waves on the horizon and the lush vegetation of a tropical island. The marks are loose, almost Fauvist in style, recalling the work of Henri Matisse. Following the example of Toulouse Lautrec, who was one of the first artists to use lithography to mimic a painterly effect in print, Hockney adopted the method of drawing with a brush dipped in tusche (diluted lithographic ink) which allowed him to work more freely.

 

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Auction Results

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1. Bora Bora

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Phillips New-York: 16 April 2025
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 55,880

Christie’s New-York: 22 April 2022
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 52,920

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
Bora Bora, 1979
Lithograph in colors on Arches 88 paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered ‘AP. XX’
(an artist’s proof, the edition was 100)

 

2. Green Bora Bora

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Sotheby’s New-York: 30 March 2023
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 38,100

DAVID HOCKNEY (b. 1937)
Green Bora Bora, 1979
Lithograph printed in colors on Rives BFK mould-made paper
Signed in pencil, dated and numbered 13/50
This impression is number 13 from the edition of 50 plus 14 artist’s proofs

Phillips New-York: 22 October 2020
Estimated: USD 10,000 – 15,000
USD 40,320

DAVID HOCKNEY
Green Bora Bora, 1979
Lithograph in green, on Rives BFK paper
Signed, dated and numbered 19/50 in pencil