David Hockney Landscape Painting Expected to Fetch Over $30 Million USD
A masterwork that signaled the beginning of his panoramic series of landscapes.
Phillips will soon launch its 20th Century and Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York City. Leading the lots is a rarely seen landscape painting by David Hockney titled Nichols Canyon which the influential British painter created back in 1980. The work currently has a pre-sale estimate in the region of $35 million USD.
“Nichols Canyon is one of Hockney’s greatest masterpieces—and unequivocally the most important landscape by the artist in private hands. Marking the beginning of his decades-long panoramic landscapes series, it was one of only two monumental works Hockney executed following his return to painting from a brief hiatus spent exploring photography in the 1970s; the other, Mulholland Drive: The Road to the Studio, is held in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,” described Phillips in a statement.
Nichols Canyon is considered to be Hockney’s first mature landscape that features a modern depiction of Los Angeles. From his swimming pools of 1960s to the lifestyle of the 1980s, the artist championed Los Angeles as a prominent muse in his prolific oeuvre, and Nichols Canyon marked the beginning of his renowned body of richly-painted panoramas of the city.
“The moment you live up here, you get a different view of Los Angeles. First of all these wiggly lines seem to enter your life, and they entered the paintings,” Hockney expressed. “I began Nichols Canyon. I took a large canvas and drew a wiggly line down the middle which is what the roads seem to be. I was living up the hills and painting in my studio down the hills, so I was traveling back and forth every day, often two, three, four times a day. I actually felt those wiggly lines.”
Phillips’ 20th Century and Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York will commence on December 7. Visit Phillips’ official website to learn more.
Elsewhere in art, renowned artists have designed limited edition porcelain plates to support New York’s coalition for the homeless.
