David Hockney Panama Hat (M.C.A.T. 119) For Sale

Panama Hat is a print created in 1972 by David Hockney. The print depicts a still life, echoing that of Van Gogh’s Chair with Pipe (1888), emphasising the artists knowledge and passion for the history of art. Hockney returned to pay tribute to the Dutch artist repeatedly throughout his career, in pieces such as Van Gogh Chair.

The scene depicts a chair adorned with the belongings of Hockney’s friend and patron, Henry Geldzahler, who was once described as ‘the most powerful and controversial art curator alive’. Belgian-born Geldzahler was the first curator of 20^th-century art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as a modern art historian and critic. David Hockney remained one of his closest friends, as the two figures moved within the same circles. As art critic Clavin Tomkins said, ‘If you were involved in any way in the [cultural] world, you met Henry.’ Geldzahler appeared frequently throughout Hockney’s oeuvre.

The print depicts Geldzahler’s belongings atop a chair, including a pipe, an empty glass, a white hat and a pin-stripe jacket hanging on the back. These items have not been randomly slung on a chair, like the historical still life’s, the items have been carefully chosen and arranged to tell a story: in this case the story of Geldzahler. Despite the absence of the curator himself, his presence is felt very strongly through the items Hockney has chosen to represent his character. The still life becomes almost an abstract portrait of Geldzahler, as the print captures the spirit of the man; we do not need to see him physically to understand him, this collection of objects is enough.

The print is simple in its composition, the chair and objects are placed against a white background, where depth is added solely through the addition of a shadow sketched gently on the right-hand side. As the chair, hat, pipe and glass are depicted with minimal texture, sketched mostly as empty shapes, this makes the jacket stand out within the composition. The dark, graphic texture of the stripes on the jacket not only adds texture and contrast within the rest of the print, but adds an extra layer of realism and depth. The simplistic, sketch-like style of this print echoes his other prints created in the early 1970s, such as French Shop, Rue de Seine and  Flowers Made of Paper and Black Ink.