David Hockney Pembroke Studio Interior (M.C.A.T 262) For Sale

Hockney’s Pembroke Studio Interior is a signed and dated lithograph, created in 1984 as part of his elaborate 26 print, Moving Focus Series, which saw him adapt new artistic methods into the lithograph form.

Similarly to the Conversation in the Studio and Pembroke Studio with Blue Chairs and Lamp prints, Hockney’s Pembroke Studio Interior draws on the early 20^th century masters such as Matisse, Picasso, and the radical Cubism movement in its depiction of a simple studio scene.

Hockney commented, ‘Cubism was an attack on the perspective that had been known and used for 500 years. It was the first big, big change. It confused people: they said, ‘things don’t look like that.’

Hockney infuses Pembroke Studio Interior with recognisable motifs unrecognisably. The print initially seems childlike and naïve in its depiction of a messy two floor studio interior complete with chairs, table, lamp, painting and what appears to be stairs upwards: however, on further glance, this is a complex portrayal elevated with bold colourings, distorted perspective and a distorted sense of space and form. The singular black and grey delineated lines of the ‘ceiling’ are contrasted with the bold formatted red diagonal stripes that denote the flooring, so as to confuse the viewer’s outlook. As if to confirm Hockney’s interest in perspective, space and form, the standpoint of the image means the studio scene could be floating in air or tilted by a shipwreck; the unnatural angles of the un-climbable staircase and the sharp lines of the walls keep us guessing at the narrative behind this seemingly familiar image.

Hockney’s fracturing of this image is reminiscent of his photographic collage style, and by distorting the viewer’s perspective of this image, Hockney creates a discourse around artist’s manipulation of space and representation.