Maurice Payne

An edition of 75, Maurice Payne is a signed print by much-loved British artist David Hockney. The etching was produced in 1971, a year in which Hockney completed some of his most well-known paintings, such as Mr. And Mrs. Clark And Percy, Portrait Of Sir. David Webster, and Sur La Terrasse. Travelling widely, to destinations such as Morocco, Southwest France, Hawaii and even Japan, 1971 also saw Hockney use etching and printmaking techniques to depict those around him, as in Mo Asleep: an intaglio print depicting his long-serving assistant, Mo McDermott, asleep on a patterned deckchair. Here, Hockney turns to another friend and artistic collaborator – the master printer, Maurice Payne. Having assisted Hockney in printing many of his etching works, Payne is quite literally inscribed into the printmaking process. As such, Hockney constructs a visual tribute to the print maker, without whom many of his etchings, such as such as An Erotic Etching (1975), would not have been converted into finished works. With unparalleled precision, Hockney offers up a side profile of Payne, who is sat in a simple chair – a subject the artist would go on to depict time and time again in his Photo Collages, and in the well-known painting Gauguin’s Chair (1988). With his arms crossed across his stomach, Payne emits a sense of stillness, his dark hair brought out in a series of rough and jagged lines which contrast with his figure.