The David Hockney Print Market: A Live Panel

You can watch the complete David Hockney Print Market panel here:

Chaired by Charlotte Stewart, MD of MyArtBroker, the panel saw specialist insights into Hockney's work and market from Helena Poole and Jasper Tordoff. Together, they explored the burgeoning market for Hockney prints and editions, from his iconic Swimming Pools, to his increasingly covetable early lithographs.

When asked what defines Hockney, both Helena and Jasper remarked upon Hockney's ceaseless innovation and his almost undefinable style. As Jasper put it, “You can't put Hockney in a box. He's an artist who is constantly reinventing himself, and has never stayed in his own lane.” Throughout his extensive and ongoing career, Hockney has experimented with so many mediums and techniques, perhaps more-so than most other Post-War & Contemporary artists. Likewise, Helena agreed that “Hockney has always been out on a limb, seeing things that other people didn't or couldn't see. He's always seen the world in his own way, and has never been too influenced by others.”

Since his training at the Bradford School of Art at the very beginning of his career, Hockney has always been endlessly creative with the media he uses. Experimentation is at the heart of Hockney's ethos, from playing with different types of traditional printmaking, to producing prints on a Xerox photocopier, to playing with perspective in his Photo Collages, to his more recent iPad Drawings. Hockney has become a master of all mediums he's tried his hand at. As Helena interpreted, “Nothing ever seems to feel satisfactory to Hockney, he's always looking for the next thing.” It is this perpetual exploration of new media and ways of seeing which led Hockney to his major Lightroom exhibition last year: Bigger & Closer (Not Smaller & Further Away).

Thanks to Hockney's unique versatility, there is truly something for everyone in the Hockney market. Just like Hockney's versatile visual vocabulary, Hockney's market also offers a great range of entry-points. At the lower end of this spectrum, for a first-time collector looking to enter this Modern British Master's market, one might consider an individual print from Hockney's earlier series.

Jasper and Helene highlight Illustrations For Six Fairy Tales From The Brothers Grimm and A Rake's Progress as a great place to start for collectors looking to spend below £5,000 on their investment. These portfolios also give collectors the opportunity to build a complete set over time, turning the collecting process into a passion project devoted to a particular series.

For the more mature collector, one might consider the more iconic and quintessentially Hockney visual motifs. Of course, the Swimming Pools remain ever-popular among collectors, with some achieving around £150,000. Likewise, Hockney's Arrival Of Spring and Yosemite Suite iPad prints are also suited to more established collectors, with certain works from the series exceeding £250,000.

As Hockney's market continues to mature, several trends are beginning to mature with different series coming into and out of vogue. Certain series seem to be reaching their peak in the market. Both Helena and Jasper agreed that auction records for The Arrival of Spring series are not happening so often, with works from the series tending to hammer at the low estimate in early 2024. However, these larger prints are still some of the most valuable in Hockney's entire body of work and continue to garner interest for their tech-forward technique and vivacity.

The aforementioned Illustrations For Six Fairy Tales From The Brothers Grimm and A Rake's Progress are two series that Helena and Jasper are watching in 2024, expecting them to continue to pique the market's interest. As Jasper describes the phenomenon, there seems to be a rediscovery happening around these earlier works. Also thanks to their lower pricepoint, these works are garnering significant attention at auction and private sale alike - a trend Helena and Jasper foresee developing as the year progresses.