Picture Of Two Chairs

This signed print by much-loved British artist David Hockney was first issued in a limited edition of 60 in 1985. Like many of Hockney’s other works, such as those depictions of the Mexican Hotel Ataclán which feature in the artist’s Interiors And Exteriors series, it owes much to the Modernist approach of major 20th-century artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall. Much like Hockney’s Photo Collages, which are well known for their rejection of traditional linear perspective, Picture of Two Chairs can be seen as a direct visual translation of Hockney’s eye. In 1985, the same year in which this print was produced, Hockney had a hearing aid fitted, and it was only then that the hard-of-hearing Hockney realised that he benefited greatly from a heightened spatial awareness. This improved sense of space is particularly evident in this print, which frames its objects of study within a perspective-bending three-dimensional box. Commenting on the hearing aid’s benefits, Hockney once said, ‘[Over the last years to compensate for my muffled ears I developed a strong visual space sense I say this because I’m very aware I seem to see in another way that has to do with noticing movement of the eye (time) and perception of space’.