Les Mamelles De Tiresias
Signed Print

This signed lithograph print from 1981 by David Hockney is a poster for an exhibition of the artist’s work as a stage and costume designer for numerous theatrical performances, held at the Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris, in the same year. Much like other works in theHockney And The Stageseries, this lithograph is an excellent example of Hockney’s focus on theatre during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, a period which saw him undertake a large body of work on behalf of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. Hockney’s designs for a 1981 showing of French opera composer Francis Poulenc’s Les mamelles de Tirésias, based on the eponymous play by French surrealist, Guillaume Apollinaire — depicted in this poster — earned high praise from the press. Commenting on the opera’s opening performance, journalist and critic Donal Henehan wrote that Hockney’s “dazzling poster-art and witty costumes provided not only color, but also dramatic continuity the whole night’. In this print, Hockney experiments with perspective and spectatorship, much like in his earlier series,A Hollywood Collection. Through a gap in the two-dimensional set, positioned behind the opera singers, we can see a maritime scene which contrasts with the strikingly dark, cross-hatched stage floor. At the bottom of the print, the shadows of audience members can be seen.