The Desk, July 1st

Medium: Photocollage on board
Year: 1984
Overall: 44 7/8 x 46 7/8 inches (114 x 119.1 cm)
Edition: 20

Signed, dated, titled and numbered in ink on the mount

Following a successful career in drawing and painting, Los Angeles-based artist David Hockney decided to pursue photography as a challenge.

“The main aspect was the lack of time in [traditional] photographs. I had become very, very aware of this ‘frozen’ moment that was very unreal to me. A photograph didn’t really have life in the way drawing or painting did. And I realized that it couldn’t, because of what it is.”

Eager to break the instantaneous restrictions of the medium, in 1980 Hockney began creating his joiners—collages comprised of multiple images, each taken from a different angle over an extended period of time. As such, a joiner presented a fluid, continuous narrative, gradually revealing Hockney’s movement around and within each scene.

The Desk, July 1st is largely recognized as one of Hockney’s most ambitious and important joiners. Taken in 1984, the joiner depicts what at first glance appears to be a work desk, comprised of dozens of individual images that collectively imbue the desk with a deeply three-dimensional feel. By doing so, Hockney blurs the line between photography and sculpture. Similarly, the books and boxes atop the desk are portrayed from multiple angles and in different stages of being opened and utilized, infusing the image with the passage of time and movement.

To further emphasize his intention, sitting atop the desk is a book open to a page depicting Pablo Picasso’s Guitar, 1913, a superb example of Cubism, the style the Spanish artist had founded with his peer Georges Braque. “Many think Cubism is an art of transition, an experiment which is to bring ulterior motives,” Picasso stated in 1923. “Those who think that way have not understood it. Cubism is not either a seed or a fetus, but an art dealing primarily with forms, and when a form is realized it is there to live its own life.” Picasso’s collage of the guitar is comprised of images and shapes culled from different mediums and sources. As such, it eschews a stylistic alliance with any traditional art forms in favor of pioneering a new, hybrid style that draws on the strength of different art forms. By positioning Picasso’s Guitar at the center of his own work, Hockney aligns The Desk, July 1st, with Picasso’s earlier masterpiece, proud to herald his own avant-garde style, breaking conventions and further solidifying his unique contribution to the field of photographs.

Auction Results

Bonhams LA: 8 April 2025
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 25,000
USD 74,160

Hindman: 17 May 2023
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 30,240

DAVID HOCKNEY (British, b. 1937)
The Desk, July 1st, 1984
Photographic prints collage laid out by hand on silkscreen on museum board
Pencil signed, titled, dated and numbered #8
From the edition of 20

Phillips New-York: 1 October 2014
Estimated: USD 60,000 – 80,000
USD 87,500

DAVID HOCKNEY
The Desk, July 1st, 1984
Photographic collage in the artist’s original frame
Signed, titled, dated and numbered ’13’ in ink on the mount
One from an edition of 20

Sotheby’s New-York: 30 September 2014
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 81,250

DAVID HOCKNEY
‘THE DESK’, 1984
Photocollage of chromogenic prints
A large-format collage of chromogenic prints
Mounted, signed, titled, dated, and editioned ‘#15’ in ink on the mount
No. 15 from an edition of 20