As recently announced by Christie's, David Hockney's 1965 masterpiece, California, will be offered as a highlight of the '20th / 21st Century: London Evening Sale' on 7 March. The sale marks the first time in more than 40 years that the painting will be shown to the public, after being kept in the same private collection since 1968.
See also: David Hockney: Star of Contemporary Art
California was painted shortly after Hockney’s first visit to Los Angeles in 1964, and it depicts two nude figures lounging on floats in a bright blue swimming pool. It is one of the first and finest early pool paintings – now one of the artist's most celebrated motifs. In 2018, a later pool painting, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) from 1972, achieved a world record when it sold at Christie's for $90.3 million (£70.2 million), at that time the highest price ever paid for a painting by a living artist.
“As one of David Hockney’s first of a series of now fabled pool paintings, California stands as one of the most important pictures of the artist’s career," said Joseph Braka, a junior specialist in Post-War and Contemporary Art for Christie's London.
See also: When David Met Gregory: The Man Behind Hockney's Career
Having set the stage for some of Hockney's most renowned pool paintings, the £16 million estimate seems somewhat conservative. While the markets for blue-chip artists' can often plateau, there is no sign that collectors' appetite for Hockney's work is slowing. Interest in the auction is expected from all over the world, with potential bidding from a global audience.
"After a childhood brought up in the north of England, and having studied in London, still reeling from the Second World War, California must have felt like Arcadia; a beautiful place to be free and enjoy being young. This sense of the artist’s optimism and jubilation is in the very fabric of Hockney’s California," commented Katharine Arnold, head of post-war and contemporary art in Europe.
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The painting was unveiled in London on 25 January before going on a touring exhibition that will include Paris from 3 to 8 February and New York from 15 to 19 February. California will then be on view at Christie's headquarters in London from 1 to 7 March, when it will go under the hammer.
