An Image of Celia, State I
From Moving Focus

Medium: Lithograph in colors on TGL handmade paper
Year: 1984-1986
Sheet: 49 1/2 x 39 inches (125.9 x 99.2 cm)
Edition: 10
Artist’s Proofs: 6
Publisher: Tyler Graphics, Ltd., Mount Kisco, New York
Literature: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (278)

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

 

The work presents Celia Birtwell who became the icon of Hockney’s portraits in the 1980s and features in over thirty of his prints. As part of the printmaking process, Hockney used sixteen Mylar sheets for drawing in colors. The sheets were subsequently turned into plates, on which the artist depicted Celia Birtwell in two positions on an upholstered chair.

The fine and realistic detail characterizing Hockney’s early portraits is replaced here by simplistic, abstract forms: oval eyes and outsized mouth extend beyond the facial contours of the woman on the left side, invoking the aesthetics of the 1980s Vogue covers. The playful composition with its two intertwined figures at the center of the print mediates a sense of movement, urging the viewer to imagine how the sitter changes her position from erect to reclining.

What appears to be the element of the central figure’s attire simultaneously represents a part of another figure’s body. As such, the two female figures at the center of the print blend with one another, reflecting Hockney’s penchant for experimenting with the optical perspective and the continued search for more dynamic ways of seeing.

 

 

 Auction Results

Bonhams LA: 8 April 2025
Estimated: USD 70,000 – 100,000
USD 241,800
AUCTION RECORD FOR AN IMAGE OF CELIA STATE I

DAVID HOCKNEY (born 1937)
An Image of Celia, State I, from Moving Focus (MCAT 278), 1984-86
Lithograph in colors on TGL handmade paper
Signed in pencil, dated ’86’ and numbered 8/10

Sotheby’s New-York: 22 October 2024
Estimated: USD 70,000 – 100,000
USD 132,000

DAVID HOCKNEY (b. 1937)
An Image of Celia, State I, from Moving Focus (M.C.A.T. 278), 1984-86
Lithograph printed in colors on TGL handmade paper
Sheet: 49 1/4 x 39 3/8 inches (125.3 x 100 cm)
Signed in pencil, dated and inscribed AP VI/VI
An artist’s proof aside from the numbered edition of 10

Christie’s New-York: 28 October 2023
Estimated: USD 70,000 – 100,000
USD 88,200

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
An Image of Celia, State I, from Moving Focus, 1984-1986
Lithograph in colors on TGL handmade paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 5⁄10