Sofa 8501 Hedges Place

This signed print by British artist David Hockney was issued in an edition of 45 in 1971 and directly recalls the intimate interior scene depicted in the 1968 print Cushions. Its title references that which it depicts: a sofa at a residential property located on the winding Los Angeles street Hedges Place, just off the world-famous Hollywood Boulevard. In 1964, Hockney had made the move from cold, grey post-war London to a young, vibrant and sexually liberated California – a location he considered as host to a ‘real’ Bohemia that no longer existed in the British capital or indeed in New York, an American city then popular with foreign artists and famed for the likes of Pop Artists Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. In this print we see Hockney turn his attention to an empty interior scene; working furiously to curb a sense of loneliness in the aftermath of his breakup from artist and former student, Peter Schlesinger, during the early ‘70s Hockney often found himself indoors. The print’s sense of absence is heightened by that of the artist’s many recurring sitters, namely Celia Birtwell, Christopher Isherwood, and Mo McDermott. Markedly introspective, Sofa 8501 Hedges Place sees Hockney absorb the detail of his everyday environment as he increasingly isolated himself from the outside world.