David Hockney Hotel Acatlan: Two Weeks Later (M.C.A.T 271) For Sale

Hotel Acatlan: Two Weeks Later, 1985 was created by Hockney after he decided to make a return journey to this now famed hotel, a couple of weeks after making Hotel Acatlan: First Day and Hotel Acatlan: Second Day to garner new perspective on the remote Mexican landmark. Whilst it was a chance encounter that Hockney found this hotel on the way to his 1984 exhibition in Mexico City, it has a become a tour de force in the artist’s multifarious career as printmaker, painter, photographic collage and digital artist.

 

Hotel Acatlan: Two Weeks Later depicts a noticeably different perspective on the Mexican building than the first two prints, portraying an overhead, birds eye rendition from inside the colourful vernacular, and in this print, includes a human figure.  Conversely this human figure looks back to Hockney’s 1954 portrait of his mother, Woman with a Sewing Machine.

 

The scene features the motifs from the earlier prints; the strong columns of the portico, the enchanting garden scape and sun light beaming into the portico space. These are all depicted in bold energetic colourways of leaf green, blood red, bright blues and yellows. On secondary glance, the artist creates a new depth and spatiality to the print-work that feels like the portico is in movement and motion: Hockney takes the viewer on an almost surreal, dream like journey into the familiar Mexican hotel scene, now exaggerated and almost frenzied. He boldly renders the marks and shading with new dramatic outline, length and intense colour which continue to distort the viewer’s perspective, as the artist seeks to decimate traditional notions of form and space.

Created on two sheets of paper joined together to seem like one single panoramic view, Hockney continues to expand his artistic language, engaging the viewer in an immersive discourse on artistic representation and perspective.