David Hockney

DAVID HOCKNEY (Bradford, United Kingdom, 1937 – London, 2026).
"Picture of Melrose Avenue in an ornate gold frame," 1965
Part of the “A Hollywood Collection” series.
Color lithograph on BFK Rives paper.
Artist’s proof VII, one of 16 proofs outside the numbered edition of 85 copies.
Signed and numbered in pencil.
Printed by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles.
Published by Editions Alecto, London.
Listed as no. 44 in two catalogs: - Andrew Brighton: “David Hockney Prints 1954–77,” Midland Group and Scottish Art Council, 1979. - “David Hockney. Prints 1954–1995," Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, and Tankosha Publishing Co., 1996
Measurements: 76.5 x 56 cm (paper); 99 x 78 cm (frame).

"Picture of Melrose Avenue in an ornate gold frame" is one of the most representative images from "A Hollywood Collection," the celebrated series of prints in which David Hockney captured the impact of his arrival in California. The composition transforms a seemingly everyday urban motif—the Melrose Avenue sign and the characteristic architecture of Los Angeles—into a reflection on perception, representation, and the boundaries between reality and artifice, foreshadowing some of the themes that would define his entire subsequent body of work. The central focus of the composition lies in the gold frame depicted within the lithograph itself, a metafictional device through which Hockney offers an ironic take on the European pictorial tradition and contemporary visual culture. With this subtle provocation, the artist subverts classical notions of the work’s value and the significance of the context in which it is exhibited.

Rather than a secondary medium, his graphic work constitutes a structural pillar in Hockney’s career, serving as a formal laboratory for expanding the boundaries of drawing, color, and composition. As an exceptional example of his early California work, this piece is extensively documented in the artist’s catalogues raisonnés and is part of prestigious international collections, notably the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York.

David Hockney is one of the leading figures in international contemporary art and one of the most influential British artists of the second half of the 20th century. Trained at the Bradford School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London, he developed a career marked by constant experimentation in painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, and new technologies. Since moving to California in 1964, he has created one of the most recognizable iconographies in contemporary art, linked to light, modern architecture, and everyday American life. His ability to renew traditional visual languages has made him a role model for subsequent generations of artists.His work is included in the collections of major international museums, including the Tate, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, cementing his position as one of the great artists of our time.