Untitled (577) (Two Robes)
Medium: iPad drawing printed in colors on wove paper
Year: 2010
Image: 32×24 inches (81.4 x 61 cm)
Sheet: 37×28 inches (94.2 x 71.2 cm)
Edition: 25
Publisher: The Artist
Signed and dated in pencil (lower right)
Numbered in pencil (lower left) with the artist’s blindstamp
Two Robes is a portrait without people, rendered with an intimacy rarely seen. Two robes aptly hang side by side on the back of a lime green door, its frame acting as a pictorial boundary that exposes an entry way to a couple’s private life. A radiator, towel and shelving unit with everyday items occupy the space, a lived-in snapshot offering the viewer rare access to the artist’s inner world. Hockney handles different textures and colours with care, his use of warm reds, oranges, and yellows creating a scene of comfort and ease. Filled with vibrancy and texture, we almost forget to notice there is no one in the space.
“Anything simple always interests me.”
Hockney invites us into the private space of the home and in doing so, grants the viewer a snapshot of the occupant’s everyday life. Cunningly, however, we are denied the knowledge of whom the occupants are. The open door is simultaneously an invitation and a barrier, we cannot see beyond our tightly controlled and closely cropped view. Most of the bathroom lies out of sight, leaving the audience to glean indications of personality and memory from the few visible personal items. In Two Robes, Hockney demonstrates the power of the domestic environment to provide psychological insight into their absent occupants, to open the hidden doors and cupboards of the emotional interior.
Source: Phillips
Auction Results
Phillips London: 22 January 2025
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 58,050 / USD 78,075
DAVID HOCKNEY
Two Robes, 2010
iPad drawing in colours printed on wove paper
Signed, dated and numbered 8/25 in pencil
Published by the artist (with his blindstamp)
Phillips London: 13 September 2022
Estimated: GBP 50,000 – 70,000
GBP 119,700 / USD 137,995
Untitled (577) (Two Robes), 2010
iPad drawing in colors printed on wove paper
Signed, dated and numbered 23/25 in pencil
Sotheby’s New-York: 19 July 2022
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 40,320
DAVID HOCKNEY (b. 1937)
Two Robes, 2010
iPad drawing printed in colors on wove paper
Signed in pencil David Hockney and dated 10 (lower right)
Numbered 14/25 (lower left)
This impression is number 14 from the edition of 25