Merced River, Yosemite Valley
Merced River, Yosemite Valley
Signed Print
David Hockney
£25,000-£40,000
$50,000-$80,000 Value Indicator
$45,000-$70,000 Value Indicator
¥230,000-¥370,000 Value Indicator
€30,000-€50,000 Value Indicator
$240,000-$390,000 Value Indicator
¥4,910,000-¥7,860,000 Value Indicator
$30,000-$50,000 Value Indicator
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
There aren't enough data points on this work for a comprehensive result. Please speak to a specialist by making an enquiry.
Medium: Photographic print
Edition size: 20
Year: 1982
Size: H 131cm x W 153cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
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Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Location | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2023 | Uppsala Auktionskammare | Sweden | |||
| October 2017 | Sotheby's Online | United Kingdom | |||
| February 2013 | Christie's London | United Kingdom | |||
| March 2012 | Sotheby's New York | United States | |||
| September 2011 | Christie's New York | United States | |||
| April 2011 | Christie's New York | United States | |||
| April 2008 | Christie's London | United Kingdom |
Meaning & Analysis
This 1983 signed print by renowned and well-loved British artist David Hockney depicts the Merced River in Yosemite Valley, an important national park in the US state of California, where Hockney lived for over 30 years of his life. An example of one of Hockney’s ‘joiner’ works, it makes an extended use of collage, and is part of a limited edition of 20.
In Merced River, Yosemite Valley (1983), a key part of British artist David Hockney’s Photo Collages collection of works, the tyranny of the camera’s monocular vision is challenged once again. Here, Hockney turns his attention to the natural world, inscribing his literal and figurative footprint into the landscape of the Yosemite Valley, California. Making sure to include boxes, now empty of the photographic film they once contained, within the overall composition of the piece – they are piled onto the ground at the bottom left of the image – Hockney makes a direct, reflexive nod to the photographic format he is both using and distorting. Portraying a key landmark in the US state of California, his home for over 30 years, Hockney commits lived experience, as opposed to static, ‘lifeless’ imagery, to the card upon which he mounts these many individual photographs. Much like his other photographic works, such as Luncheon At The British Embassy, Tokyo, February 16th 1983 (1983), or Gregory Reading In Kyoto (1983), here a multi-perspectival approach to photography triumphs over its quite literally ‘short-sighted’ counterpart. Taking many small snapshots, each conveying minute details visible only to the eye, Hockney commits the transience of human experience to a fluid and multi-valent artistic form.
