French Shop

French Shop is a signed print by British artist David Hockney from 1971 - the year in which Hockney completed his iconic painting, Mr. And Mrs. Clark And Percy, depicting lifelong friend and muse, Celia Birtwell, and her then husband, Ossie Clark. It depicts the exterior of a French grocery shop visited by Hockney during his travels in southwestern France in the same year. A bold, hard-edged shop sign bearing the words ‘ALIMENTATION’ echoes the simple lines of the shop roof, its windows, and what appears to be a chain link fly screen hung across its entrance. The architectural focus of the work mimics some of the artist’s most iconic pieces, including A Bigger Splash (1967), a painting sure to include the stylish forms of Modernist architecture, typical of Los Angeles, in its background. Hockney’s fascination with organic forms also permeates the piece, with its depiction of a cactus-like plant recalling both the artist's California home, and the vegetal focus of the Home Made Prints series. French Shop also makes an extended use of the cross-hatching characteristic of Hockney’s many etchings, evoking the rigid forms of the artist’s set designs for a 1975 showing of The Rake’s Progress, as seen in his poster print, An Exhibit Of Costumes (1975) – part of the Hockney And The Stage series.