Hockney’s work sold for $ 41 million in New York

New York, Dec 7 (EFE) .- David Hockney’s work “Nichols Canyon” (1980), considered one of the most significant pieces of the British painter, was sold this Monday for just over 41 million dollars in an organized auction by the Phillips Company in New York, which set a world record for one of his landscape paintings.
Hockney’s 83-year-old painting had been valued at $ 35 million and only slightly exceeded that figure, reaching a hammer price of $ 35.5 million, plus fees and taxes, up to 41,067 million.
Described by the Phillips Auction House as “the most important Hockney landscape to ever reach an auction,” the painting was exhibited in November first in London and then in Hong Kong, later arriving in New York.
The painting, over eight feet high and five feet wide, marks the return and full acceptance of Hockney’s landscape paintings after a brief foray into photography in the 1970s, and was included in the momentous exhibition of 1981 “A New Spirit in Painting” at the Royal Academy in London.
The artist described in a statement the process of the production of this piece, which reflects a landscape of the Hollywood hills, in Los Angeles (California): “The moment you live up there, you have different views of Los Angeles At first these meandering lines seem to enter your life, and then they enter the paintings. ”
“I started Nichols Canyon. I took a large canvas and drew a wavy line in the middle, which is what the road looks like. I lived in the hills and painted from my studio on the foothills, so I came and went every day, sometimes two, three or four times a day. I really felt those meandering lines, “he added.
The sale of this piece culminates a successful year for Hockney on the market, as in February his iconic painting “The Splash” (1966) was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in London for 23.1 million pounds (29.8 millions of dollars).
In addition, earlier this year the London Opera House sold a portrait of Hockney of its general administrator, David Webster, with the aim of alleviating the financial difficulties of the institution caused by the pandemic, and for which it ended up paying 12.8 million pounds ($ 16.8 million).
Just over two years ago, Hockney set a record for a work by a living artist when the 1972 “Portrait of an Artist (Pool With Two Figures)” sold for more than $ 90 million, although it was soon surpassed by Jeff Koons and his sculpture “Rabbit” which sold for 91 million.

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