David Hockney Tyler Dining Room (M.C.A.T 261) For Sale

David Hockney’s Tyler Dining Room is a signed lithograph, one of an edition of 98: it is part of his 26 lithograph series, Moving Focus, which stems from his move from the Yorkshire hills to California. During his trip to the City of Angels, a chance encounter led him to master printer, Kenneth Tyler, an innovator who had previously worked with art luminaries like Roy Lichtenstein.

Tyler’s master printing expertise enabled Hockney’s vision, inspired by the vibrant Californian landscape, to expand his artistic repertoire segueing between his favourite art forms – photographic collage, printmaking, drawing, painting – and transforming them all, for the first time, into the lithograph. It is this new artistic language which comprises the Moving Focus series: focusing on space, perspective and place. Presumably this print, Tyler Dining Room, is inspired by Kenneth Tyler’s dining room, and the fruitful collaboration between himself and Hockney.

In Tyler Dining Room, David Hockney sets the scene: a large dining table dominates the room, surrounded by nine chairs yet just seven place settings and there are no actual diners to be seen. The room is filled with recognisable motifs: a still life vase filled with flowers sits on a side table, a vibrant pop art mural hangs on the wall, a decorative chandelier hangs down from the ceiling and we can just about glimpse a window, yet the view is un-rendered. Yet Hockney renders the scene familiar and askew simultaneously: we can immediately recognise Hockney’s imprint on the dining room image, with bold crayon contrasting colourways from the dynamic bright blue floor to the soft pink walls punctuated by the golden-brown dining table and chairs. Hockney also reinvents this everyday domestic image through a distorted perspective: almost like looking at an illusion, the image is cramped as if we are looking into a goldfish bowl where the room seems to curve into itself.

In Tyler Dining Room, Hockney rouses the viewer to see the familiar image through his passionate and lively prism: he illustrates his technical mastery to create beyond representation and use colour to infuse everyday scenes with fiery emotion and resonance.