Artnet’s Premier Prints & Multiples auction returns for the summer! To celebrate we asked our team of Prints & Multiples specialists to tell us about four works in the sale, that are catching their eye this season. The sale is live for bidding until July 13.
David Hockney, (1972)
David Hockney, (1972). Est. $25,000–$35,000.
“David Hockney’s printmaking career, spanning 60+ years, has been characterized by experimentation, challenging norms, and a mastery of technique. We have a selection of fantastic Hockney prints in our sale, including a few recent iPad drawings, but I find myself drawn to this relatively simple etching with aquatint from 1972. Hockney focused on etching in the 1960s and early 1970s as the medium paired well with the illustrative style that he adopted during this time. Hockney has made many portraits of curator and close friend, Henry Geldzahler, but this one is unique as only the sitter’s hat and jacket remain to represent him.”—Sylvie Francois, Specialist, Prints & Multiples
Yayoi Kusama, (1985)
Yayoi Kusama, (1985). Est. $25,000–$35,000.
“Since very early on as a working artist, Yayoi Kusama wanted her work to pervade the world. And while it took until much later in her career to accomplish that, Kusama is now one of the most recognizable artists working today, her popularity stemming partly from her life story being inseparable from her art. This print was created in 1985, eight years after the artist admitted herself into a Tokyo psychiatric institute and never checked out, and just a few years before international interest in her work was revived and catapulted her to stardom. It features two of her most iconic motifs—her infinity net patter and polka dots, which adorn and surround an image of a coffee cup, no doubt inspired by her daily surroundings. What I find most striking about this work is the use of bright colors, which is a notable feature of her later works along with their engagement with broader subject matter.”—Lauren Whitton, Specialist, Prints & Multiples
El Anatsui, (2018)
El Anatsui, (2018). Est. $10,000–$15,000.
“How sculptors have chosen to translate their work into print, on generally a flat, two-dimensional plane, has always been a very curious thing. Sometimes their visual language is different from their sculpture (think Richard Serra) while others have found ways to incorporate their work so seamlessly that identifying the artist is easy. Ghana-based artist El Anatsui, known for his large, hanging totemic assemblages made of disparate materials like bottle caps and metal scrap, falls into this latter category. His edition from 2018 is a pigment print on paper out of which literally flows a collage of aluminum fragments held together by copper wire. In the last 50 years, printmaking has often pushed the boundaries of what an artist can do, especially for those new to the field, but it’s still something extraordinary to see paper and metal together. This is one of only a handful of prints produced by Anatsui and all done in collaboration with Ribuoli Digital, a multi-disciplinary fabrication studio, which has also worked with sculptors Fred Eversley and Lynda Benglis.”—Conner Williams, Head of Prints & Multiples
Ed Ruscha, (2014)
Ed Ruscha, (2014). Est. $10,000–$15,000.
“This piece is one of a series of six works created in collaboration with Mixografia, an L.A.-based publisher, and personal favorite of mine.”Rusty Signs” represents a shift in the artist’s practice from creating representational images of iconic signs to recreating the sign itself with the help of innovative printing techniques. This three-dimensional work reproduces the many neglected signs found across America that speak to one of the artist’s signature themes, that of time. Upon closer inspection, the colors reveal shifts in the rust, intense surface detail, and even bullet holes to display its worn use. This detail is a signature of Mixografia’s creative and unique style of printmaking which has been used by other artists such as Louise Bourgeois and Tom Wesselmann (whose works are also featured in this sale). is one of the more vivid color waves in this series which implores the use of heavy, darker, metallic-like hues to represent not just rust but the passage of time.”—Diego Arellano, Junior Specialist, Prints & Multiples
