David Hockney Lightning (M.C.A.T 130) For Sale

David Hockney’s Lightning, 1973, is one of the most striking lithographs from his innovative The Weather series. A sequence of six prints, in which Hockney depicts the ephemerality of weather conditions: ‘the subject matter is really the weather drawn, not just the weather itself.’

The monochromatic depiction is of a darkened, haunting valley with winding roads, overhead is the heavy grim dark sky with thick clouds and the threat of rainclouds above. The darkened rainclouds are contrasted with lighter fluffier clouds lying below, almost like a silver lining, giving hope of finer weather on its way. However, both are punctuated by a graphic strip of lightning strikes, which emerge like a bright white flash out of the thick clouds: Hockney uses the contrasting atmospheres to suggest at the transience of weather conditions and the potential of a dramatic thunderstorm to completely clear the way for sun. In doing so, the artist, arguably is using the weather metaphorically commenting on ideas of self and identity: Carl Jung famously spoke of the power of the shadow we all carry around, darkly threatening our conscious existence.

Hockney once remarked, ‘Shadows sometimes people don’t see shadows…oriental art never deals with shadow. But I noticed these shadows and I knew it meant it was sunny.’

The saturated darkness of the composition, which depicts an undulating road weaving between the rolling hills, relates back to Hockney’s enchantment with the Brothers Grimm fairytales, which influenced his 1969 landscape series: later the artist reimagined these scenic vistas in his popular colourful depictions of his Yorkshire hometown. (Tree Tunnel, The Road to York Through Sledmere etc)

Hockney’s fascination with 18^th Century Japanese artist Hokusai and his pioneering u-kioye woodblock printing techniques is evident in the Lightning print, which dramatically merges screen-printing and lithograph for the first time.