David Hockney: Sacred As the Most Expensive Artist in the World

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David Hockney: Sacred as the most expensive artist in the world by smArty #NEW YORK It was during a last autumn sale in New York that Christie's auctioned David Hockney's painting "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with two figures)" for $90.3 million (including fees). An absolute record for a living artist's painting. This magnificent work, world-renowned, is already a cult piece of Hockney's work, which it symbolizes without summarizing it. Its composition, extremely structured, with a central vanishing line, the use of straight lines and right angles, the bold choice of colours (opposition between green trees and the red jacket), the theme, the artist watching her lover underwater come towards him, a love story that unravels, falls into the water.... This is what contributes to making this painting a major work that will remain. No doubt about it As for the price, some experts see it as an interest, even a fashion, for artists still in this world. For example, a Jackson Pollock painting, estimated at $18 million, did not find a buyer. So be it. But a painting by René Magritte, "Le principe du plaisir" was acquired for 26.8 million. It's hard to see a clear trend there. Hockney's painting was purchased last May by a California investment fund for $28.4 million. The speculative shift is therefore phenomenal The reason for this record is probably not due to a fashion. David Hockney can already be considered a "classical" contemporary artist, during his lifetime and for a long time, like Francis Bacon. Jeff Koons, Murakami, will they stay? Possibly, as a curiosity, a kind of new pop art of derivative products. We will no longer be here to say it. Perhaps yesterday we simply witnessed the triumph of the classic over the gadget (and there are some very beautiful gadgets), the consecration by the market of a huge artist whose every retrospective is an event, a great moment of emotion for the public Art history likes anecdotes, she will remember that David Hocney sold his painting in 1972 to... 20.000 dollars. This morning, he must be flattered and amused, mischievous as always. Sure he's already enjoying a cigarette: "Essential for mental health". Christie's NYC Sale November 15, 2018 16 Nov 2018 #David Hockney #Record

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