David Hockney Number One Chair M.C.A.T 287) For Sale

Number One Chair is a signed lithograph from an edition of 60, part of David Hockney’s unconventional Moving Focus series. As with numerous other artworks in Moving Focus, (for instance, Two Pembroke Chairs, The Perspective Lesson) Hockney makes the humble chair, the central focus of the Number One Chair lithograph, giving the everyday piece of furniture narrative control of the image.

However, Hockney’s unique colourist’s eye gives each depiction of the simple wicker chair, new personality and characteristics: in Number One Chair the main focus of the image is a wicker chair covered with a soft floral patterned, pink cushion. It is a homely image suggestive of a chair in a countryside house or garden area. On closer inspection the wicker chair is enlargened by the floorboard, which the artist constructs through criss-cross diagonal lines that appear cut up and arranged at contrasting angles. The abstract floor arrangement distorts the viewer’s perspective, adding a sense of movement and depth, to this simple interior scenario.

Hockney challenges the viewer by creating a mini background scene also featuring mini chairs depicted with black and white, simple clean lines that subside into the background contrasted with the colourful, vibrant ‘Number One Chair.’

Number One Chair is evocative of Hockney’s progressive Moving Focus series in which he explored ways to convey ‘how his eye sees,’ and how he ‘feels space.’