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Four days to get a glimpse of Hockney's housewife
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent23 Mar 2009
LONDONERS get a chance this week to see a David Hockney masterpiece expected to set a record at auction.
Christie's is putting the painting, Beverly Hills Housewife, on show at its King Street headquarters for four days from today. It is only the second time it has been seen in the UK.
The work will then return to America for auction on 13 May in New York, where it is expected to make up to $10million (£7million). The record for a Hockney was set in London three years ago when The Splash sold for £2.9million.
The work, depicting American philanthropist Betty Freeman in her Los Angeles home, was painted soon after Hockney arrived in America in the Sixties. She subsequently bought the painting - a diptych measuring 12ft by 6ft- which became a centrepiece of her extensive art collection.
Several items are being sold in the May post-war and contemporary art sale after Mrs Freeman's death this year aged 87. The art market is expecting Hockney, 71, to follow Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud in becoming the next big bankable Brit at auction.
Meanwhile, Hockney has revealed how he has moved into the modern age, using a digital paintbrush. He has composed portraits and landscapes on screen, then printed them out. Subjects include scenes of Yorkshire near his Bridlington home and his brother, Paul, and sister, Margaret.
He said: "I drew them playing with iPhones and they sat there for about three hours absolutely engrossed while I drew them on Photoshop. A few years ago it wasn't possible. I'd often tried it but found the computer couldn't keep up. You'd finish a drawing and, on the screen, the line was still moving."
These works will be exhibited in Los Angeles and will be shown at his gallery, Annely Jude Fine Art, in London from May.
Hockney added: "It's probably only in the past year that the computer got quick enough to keep up with the draughtsman. It's a very new medium and it's turned out to be fantastic."
