.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The Paper Pools are a group of individually made paper-pulp works created during a three-month period of collaboration between Hockney and Ken Tyler.
David Hockney spent several days experimenting with this new medium, adapting to it, and learning how to control the technique of forming images using cookie-cutter moulds. After making numerous studies to test colours and techniques, he made his first images.
The process they developed involved six diffrent steps in which newly made pulp sheets where couched and then coloured. First, image moulds constructed from galvanized metal strips were cut and shaped following the artist's line drawings and soldered together. The moulds were placed on newly made pulp base sheets, and coloured pulps and dyes were applied. After removing the moulds, Hockney applied pulps and dyes freehand using a variety of tools, including spoons, turkey basters, soup ladles, brushes and dog combs. The pulp sheets were repeatedly pressed, with Hockney constantly adding, removing and altering the coloured pulp. Once he completed a work the sheets were dried between blotters. After the Sunflower variations, Hockney concentrated on Ken Tyler's swimming pool. He photographed, sketched, and studied it over and over, recording the water's luminescence and how it changed at different times of the day, under artificial illumination at night, and under different weather conditions.
Overall, Hockney produced 16 different variations of this intriguing subject, making each single one - through the highly complex technique explained above - a unique work of paper.
David Hockney spent several days experimenting with this new medium, adapting to it, and learning how to control the technique of forming images using cookie-cutter moulds. After making numerous studies to test colours and techniques, he made his first images.
The process they developed involved six diffrent steps in which newly made pulp sheets where couched and then coloured. First, image moulds constructed from galvanized metal strips were cut and shaped following the artist's line drawings and soldered together. The moulds were placed on newly made pulp base sheets, and coloured pulps and dyes were applied. After removing the moulds, Hockney applied pulps and dyes freehand using a variety of tools, including spoons, turkey basters, soup ladles, brushes and dog combs. The pulp sheets were repeatedly pressed, with Hockney constantly adding, removing and altering the coloured pulp. Once he completed a work the sheets were dried between blotters. After the Sunflower variations, Hockney concentrated on Ken Tyler's swimming pool. He photographed, sketched, and studied it over and over, recording the water's luminescence and how it changed at different times of the day, under artificial illumination at night, and under different weather conditions.
Overall, Hockney produced 16 different variations of this intriguing subject, making each single one - through the highly complex technique explained above - a unique work of paper.