Two Pembroke Studio Chairs
from Moving Focus

Medium: Lithograph printed in colors on HMP handmade paper
Year: 1984
Image: 16 x 19 1/4 inches (40.6 x 48.9 cm)
Sheet: 19×22 inches (47.9 x 55.9 cm)
Edition: 98
Artist’s Proofs: 18 AP numbered in Roman numerals
Publisher: Tyler Graphics Ltd., Mount Kisco, New York
Literature: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (264); Tyler Graphics (276)

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

Two Pembroke Studio Chairs is a vibrant, experimental lithograph from David Hockney’s celebrated Moving Focus series that explores the nature of perception by distorting perspective. In this artwork, familiar objects from the artist’s studio are fractured and reassembled into a dynamic composition that challenges the viewer’s visual assumptions.

Two Pembroke Studio Chairs depicts two chairs in Hockney’s Pembroke studio. A green rattan armchair is shown on the right, and a simpler yellow wooden folding chair is on the left. Both are depicted from multiple viewpoints at once, appearing to tilt toward the viewer. The chairs are set against an abstract, geometric backdrop with dynamic patterns of red, black, and white. Fragmented and broken floorboards are rendered from different angles, enhancing the sense of movement and disorienting space. The chairs cast “spiky and disorienting shadows” that contribute to the unusual atmosphere of the interior.

Hockney used color lithography, a medium he pushed to new expressive territories with the Moving Focus series. The central meaning of Two Pembroke Studio Chairs lies in its exploration of how human vision differs from the fixed perspective of a camera. The work combines various perspectives into a single image, mimicking how the human eye and mind experience a space through a series of shifting glances. The chairs become less like still objects and more like subjects of an experiment in vision.

By distorting and abstracting the ordinary scene of his studio, Hockney invites the viewer to reconsider how everyday objects and spaces are perceived. The artist often used chairs as “narrative devices” to explore themes of presence and absence. In this case, the two vacant chairs create a dialogue, leaving the viewer to wonder about the people who sat there. Two Pembroke Studio Chairs is a key example of Hockney’s career-long investigation into perspective, a theme that continues to inspire contemporary artists exploring new modes of visual storytelling.

 Auction Results

Heritage Auctions: 18 April 2023
Estimated: USD 7,000 – 9,000
USD 18,750

DAVID HOCKNEY
Two Pembroke Studio Chairs, from Moving Focus, 1984
Lithograph in colors on HMP handmade paper
Signed, dated and numbered 49/98 in pencil along lower edge

Phillips London: 13 September 2022
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 10,000
GBP 27,720 / USD 32,405

Sotheby’s London: 15 March 2022
Estimated: GBP 4,000 – 6,000
GBP 16,380 / USD 21,420

DAVID HOCKNEY (b.1937)
Two Pembroke Studio Chairs, from Moving Focus (MCA Tokyo 264), 1984
Lithograph printed in colors on HMP handmade paper
Signed in pencil, dated, numbered 69/98