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).

Created in 1965, a pivotal moment in David Hockney’s California iconography, this lithograph brings together some of the traits that made his work one of the most original contributions to postwar art: a fascination with Los Angeles, irony, the interplay between reality and representation, and an extraordinary graphic intelligence.

The image depicts a seemingly trivial fragment of the city—the Melrose Avenue sign, the flat geometry of a building, a streetlamp with an almost plant-like appearance, and a head partially emerging from the bottom edge—elevated to the status of a work of art by a lavish gilded frame depicted within the print itself. Hockney thus contrasts the solemnity of classical ornamentation with the immediacy of a contemporary urban scene, offering a sophisticated reflection on the value that the frame, the exhibition, and the context confer upon images.

The print is part of “A Hollywood Collection,” one of the most significant portfolios from his early American period. The series was conceived as an ironic “instant art collection” intended for an imaginary Hollywood audience and comprises six lithographs—landscape, portrait, still life, nude, abstraction, and cityscape—accompanied by a title page and colophon. Each composition features a different illusionist frame, inspired by models the artist saw in a shop near the Gemini studio, where the edition was produced.

The blue sky, rendered with visible and deliberately graphic strokes, is marked by the compact, flat surfaces of the architecture. The street sign introduces written language as a visual element and situates the scene in a specific location, while the fragmentary framing suggests a fleeting glimpse, akin to a photograph or a memory. The result combines everyday observation, humor, and artifice, transforming a corner of Los Angeles into an iconic image of California’s visual culture. Copies of this lithograph are part of the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

David Hockney was one of the leading figures in contemporary British art. Trained at the Bradford School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London, he developed a career marked by continuous experimentation with painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, set design, and digital technologies. His work is represented in institutions such as the Tate, MoMA, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.