Lightning

This print sees a fork of lightning strikes above a darkened valley, emerging like a bright white flash out of thick clouds. It brings with it a shower of rain that soaks the lines of trees below. The raincloud is contrasted with lighter fluffy white clouds just beneath it which suggest finer weather is on the way, reflecting the changeability of high pressure and the potential for a thunderstorm to clear the way for sun.

Lightning is part of the artist’s The Weather series, in which he studied various atmospheric effects and created scenes inspired in part by Japanese prints, in part by his own take on the Southern Californian landscape. Entirely monochrome, the work is also closely related to the artist’s landscapes in his 1969 series Illustrations For Six Fairy Tales From The Brothers Grimm. The perspective of the composition also recalls many of his later views of Yorkshire in which we are looking down on a road weaving between hills in a suggestion of distance, filled with the nostalgia of the road trip. Dating to 1973 The Weather series was produced in collaboration with master printers Gemini G.E.L. of LA whom Hockney had worked with before on portfolios such as A Hollywood Collection and with whom he would make the famous Friends series.