David Hockney
A Picture of Ourselves (from The Blue Guitar portfolio), 1966-67
etching and aquatint in colors on Inveresk mould-made paper
13 h × 16½ w in (33 × 42 cm), image
17½ h × 20¼ w in (44 × 51 cm), sheet
17½ h × 20¼ w in (44 × 51 cm), sheet
Edition 164/200; signed and numbered to lower edge
Copyright The Artist
David Hockney The Blue Guitar Portfolio During the summer of 1976, David Hockney became enamored with Wallace Stevens’s 1937 poem The Man with the Blue Guitar while vacationing on Fire...
David Hockney
The Blue Guitar Portfolio
During the summer of 1976, David Hockney became enamored with Wallace Stevens’s 1937 poem The Man with the Blue Guitar while vacationing on Fire Island. The resulting ten drawings and twenty prints inspired by the text displayed Hockney’s reverence for Pablo Picasso (an interest shared by Wallace) and visually communicated the poem’s themes of transformation and reality versus imagination. The imagery tells the story of Picasso’s stylistic journey through the use of color and iconography, often juxtaposing the artist’s phases within a single image. Ultimately, with the help of master printer Aldo Crommelynck, the drawings were converted into mixed media intaglio prints through a color-etching process originally created for Picasso’s use.
The Blue Guitar Portfolio
During the summer of 1976, David Hockney became enamored with Wallace Stevens’s 1937 poem The Man with the Blue Guitar while vacationing on Fire Island. The resulting ten drawings and twenty prints inspired by the text displayed Hockney’s reverence for Pablo Picasso (an interest shared by Wallace) and visually communicated the poem’s themes of transformation and reality versus imagination. The imagery tells the story of Picasso’s stylistic journey through the use of color and iconography, often juxtaposing the artist’s phases within a single image. Ultimately, with the help of master printer Aldo Crommelynck, the drawings were converted into mixed media intaglio prints through a color-etching process originally created for Picasso’s use.