Name: It Picks Its Way
Brand: David Hockney
Rating: 5 (235 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of David Hockney's It Picks Its Way (signed) is estimated to be worth between £1,550 and £2,350. This intaglio print, created in 1977, has shown consistent value growth, with an average annual growth rate of 5%. This work has a steady auction history, having been sold 10 times at auction since its initial sale on 21st October 2004. In the last 12 months, the average selling price was £1,600 across 1 sale. Over the past five years, the hammer price has ranged from £1,600 in June 2025 to £1,726 in May 2024. The average annual growth rate of this work is 5% and the edition size is limited to 200.

Meaning & Analysis

A strange coloured tube, segmented like a worm, floats through a scribbled doorway, suspended by two rings that hang from the ceiling. Another tube, covered in rings floats just above it. Though the doorway is empty it casts a dark shadow as if it were filled. The ubiquitous tasseled rug of this series floats off in the distance of the composition. The title of the work, It Picks Its Way, perhaps refers to his worm like tube as well as the guitar of the series’ title and yet this remains an extremely enigmatic composition, striking in its minimalism and refusal to explain itself to the viewer. Perhaps the clues lie in a poem; it was inspired by Wallace Stevens’s 1937 work The Blue Guitar which was in turn inspired by the famous 1903 painting by Picasso entitled The Old Guitarist. Hockney first came across the poem while spending time on Fire Island with friends in 1976 and was immediately moved to respond to it, beginning with a series of ink drawings which then became this series of etchings. The portfolio was published with each work as an edition of 200 in 1977 and was also made into a book.