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Lot Essay
‘…if you want to work in line I think that it is the loveliest medium of all’ (David Hockney).
This intimate line drawing from 1978 depicts Gregory Evans propped up on pillows in bed. Gregory was Hockney's assistant and companion for nearly a decade during the 1970s. He sat for Hockney numerous times and portraits of him, along with Celia Birtwell, Peter Schlesinger and Henry Geldzahler are synonymous with Hockney’s early oeuvre. The pair met in 1974 through the art dealer Nick Wilder when Gregory was in his early twenties. In an interview with The Guardian in May 2015, Hockney was asked who the love of his life is, to which the artist replied, ‘Maybe Gregory’. Gregory remains to this day a close friend of Hockney's. His portrait was included in the 2016 David Hockney RA: 82 Portraits and 1 Still-life exhibition at the Royal Academy, London.
Hockney focused on line drawings for a period from 1965 through to the late 1970s before he began experimenting with mediums such photomontage and paper pulp. They are regarded as some of his finest works due to their refined simplicity and technical skill. In the present work, Hockney’s aptitude is evident - each line is continuous and unhesitant and there is no evidence that the artist drafted up his composition beforehand.
Hockney discussed his process, ‘I never talk when I am drawing a person, especially if I’m making line drawings. I prefer there to be no noise at all so I can concentrate more. You can’t make a line too slowly, you have to go at a certain speed; so the concentration needed is quite strong. It’s very tiring as well. If you make two or three line drawings, it's very tiring in the head, because you have to do it all at one go, something you’ve no need to do with pencil drawings … Its exciting doing it, and I think it's harder than anything else; so when they succeed, they’re much better drawings, often’ (D. Hockney, quoted in N. Stangos, David Hockney by David Hockney, My Early Years, London, 1976, p. 157).
This intimate line drawing from 1978 depicts Gregory Evans propped up on pillows in bed. Gregory was Hockney's assistant and companion for nearly a decade during the 1970s. He sat for Hockney numerous times and portraits of him, along with Celia Birtwell, Peter Schlesinger and Henry Geldzahler are synonymous with Hockney’s early oeuvre. The pair met in 1974 through the art dealer Nick Wilder when Gregory was in his early twenties. In an interview with The Guardian in May 2015, Hockney was asked who the love of his life is, to which the artist replied, ‘Maybe Gregory’. Gregory remains to this day a close friend of Hockney's. His portrait was included in the 2016 David Hockney RA: 82 Portraits and 1 Still-life exhibition at the Royal Academy, London.
Hockney focused on line drawings for a period from 1965 through to the late 1970s before he began experimenting with mediums such photomontage and paper pulp. They are regarded as some of his finest works due to their refined simplicity and technical skill. In the present work, Hockney’s aptitude is evident - each line is continuous and unhesitant and there is no evidence that the artist drafted up his composition beforehand.
Hockney discussed his process, ‘I never talk when I am drawing a person, especially if I’m making line drawings. I prefer there to be no noise at all so I can concentrate more. You can’t make a line too slowly, you have to go at a certain speed; so the concentration needed is quite strong. It’s very tiring as well. If you make two or three line drawings, it's very tiring in the head, because you have to do it all at one go, something you’ve no need to do with pencil drawings … Its exciting doing it, and I think it's harder than anything else; so when they succeed, they’re much better drawings, often’ (D. Hockney, quoted in N. Stangos, David Hockney by David Hockney, My Early Years, London, 1976, p. 157).