Above and Beyond
from Some More New Prints

Medium: Screen-print in colors on Arches 88 paper
Year: 1993
Image: 22 1/2 x 31 7/8 inches (57×81 cm)
Sheet: 24 5/8 x 33 5/8 inches (62.4 x 85.3 cm)
Edition: 68
Artist’s Proofs: 14
Publisher: Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles
Literature: Gemini (1625), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (339)

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

David Hockney’s Above and Beyond, from Some More New Prints, of 1993 is an experimental investigation into the nature of seeing. Swelling waves of textured patterns undulate across the page, teasing the eye into thinking it sees something discernible before dissolving into a compounding mass of pulsing color and movement. In this highly stylized depiction of California, the planes and patterns unfurl to create a surreal spatial arrangement, both atmospheric and ambiguous. Combining different viewpoints into a single composition is emblematic of Hockney’s attuned sense of perspective, and more specifically, his rejection of Western single-point perspective.

“They’re a bit mind boggling, but they are meant to be. The viewer can roam freely within them, finding his or her own space. That’s why there are no figures in them. You construct you own space mentally.”

For Hockney, single-point perspective was a limited, constrictive way of communicating our experience of the world around us, which he likens to “looking at the world from the point of view of a paralyzed Cyclops.” Instead, the artist synthesizes an amalgamation of hills, ravines and plains all at once, plucking from his mind certain memories revived with singular artistic imagination. The resulting image is a dynamic whirlwind of hallucinogenic figurations reflecting the meandering natural vista, balancing reality with fiction.

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In the early 1990s Hockney turned his attention towards set design – a creative decision that would preoccupy his practice for several years and would influence his other artistic output; most notably, his prints. This built upon his previous operatic projects, notably Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, which premiered at Glyndebourne festival, East Sussex, in 1975 and drew on his eponymous 1961-3 suite of etchings. Years later, working with assistant Richard Schmidt, the artist continued to explore lighting and design models for various operatic performances, a significant example being Richard Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in 1992. Hockney began to create abstract landscapes; his brightly colored sets were illuminated by different light sources and through layering back-lit silhouettes and other textural components he manipulated perspective in front of a live audience. While the artist had no interest in becoming a permanent theatre designer, who in his eyes, “takes direct orders. I wasn’t willing to do that…”, the artist enjoyed the collaborative nature of working with different professionals – from sound specialists to costume designers – having been given reasonable free reign to explore the full potential of abstract landscape in three-dimension. Described by the Los Angeles Times as “…like a symphony that constantly reinvents its own harmonics”, the abstracted landscape of Hockney’s Some More New Prints series echoes his experimental operatic designs, a bold display of technical and observational virtuosity. The artist recognized that we see both geometrically and psychologically, subverting what the eye expects through sensuous line and color. In this way, Above and Beyond balances abstraction with various tropes of traditional landscape painting, lending his audience a momentary glance into Hockney’s extraordinary artistic vision.

Auction Results

Phillips London: 21 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 15,000 – 20,000
GBP 16,510 / USD 20,350

SBI Art Auction: 14 July 2023
Estimated: JPY 1,200,000 – 1,800,000
JPY 2,127,500 / USD 15,412 

David HOCKNEY
Above and Beyond, from “Some More New Prints” (M.C.A.T. 339), 1993
Screenprint
Signed, dated and numbered on the lower part
From the edition of 68

Phillips London: 13 September 2022
Estimated: GBP 15,000 – 20,000
GBP 39,060 / USD 45,660

DAVID HOCKNEY (b.1937)
Above and Beyond (Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo 339) from Some More New Prints, 1993
Screen-print in colors on Arches 88 wove paper
Signed in pencil, dated and numbered 16/68