A Picture of Two Chairs
from Moving Focus

Medium: Lithograph and etching in colors on HMP hand-made paper
Year: 1985-1986
Sheet: 18 3/4 x 22 inches (48 x 55.9 cm)
Edition: 60
Artist’s Proofs: 18
Publisher: Tyler Graphics Ltd., Los Angeles
Literature: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (286)

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

In Two Chairs, David Hockney uses absence to explore companionship, balancing the transience of a moment with the longevity of memory. In this lithograph, Hockney presents two upholstered armchairs – one mustard yellow with red trimmings and the other monochrome – set within a spatially contorted interior. Produced as part of his groundbreaking Moving Focus series, the work challenges traditional single-point perspective, employing warped floorboards and a drawn box-frame to force viewers to actively shift their viewpoint across the composition.

Hockney was drawn to the anthropomorphic qualities of chairs, viewing their arms, legs and backs as surrogate portraits for absent sitters. While empty furniture often carries a melancholic sense of past lives, the pairing of these two chairs establishes an atmosphere of quiet intimacy. The worn, indented cushions bear the physical imprint of repeated use, turning the furniture into a tangible record of long-term companionship and shared history. The domestic intimacy of friendship is a recurring motif in Hockney’s oeuvre, here reimagined through the spatial memory left on everyday objects.

Source: Phillips

 Auction Results

Phillips London: 19 September 2026
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 16,770 / USD 22,465

K Auction: 22 January 2025
Estimated: KRW 15,000,000 – 40,000,000
KRW 23,000,000 / USD 16,080

DAVID HOCKNEY
Portrait of Two Chairs, 1986
Lithograph, etching
Signed, dated and numbered on the front

Bonhams London: 23 June 2021
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 21,500 / USD 30,075