Galerie Denise René Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf
Acquired directly from the ab🌃ove by the present own🅠er in 1977

Krefeld, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Zeichnungen der 50er bis 70er Jahre aus dem Kaiser Wilhelm Museum Krefeld, 1980, p. 37, no. 50, illustrated
Krefeld, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Sammlung Helga und Walther Lauffs - Amerikanische und europäische Kunst der sechziger und siebziger Jahre, 1983-84, p. 127, no. 161, illustrated 

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is slightly warmer and richer in the original. Condtion: This work is in very good condition. It is hinged to the backing board in the top two corners. There is light undulation and handling creases scattered in places throughout the composition. There is a minute media accretion towards the centre of the left-hand edge, only visible upon close inspection. The paper has discoloured slightly throughout, with two slightly darker areas: one towards the centre of the extreme left-hand edge and one towards the bottom right-hand corner.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

"I draw what I like, where I like and when I like"  The artist cited in: Exhibition Catalogue, Vienna, Albertina, David Hockney, 1978, n.p

Against a backdrop of continual innovation, Hockney's drawings have always remained central to his oeuvre. His drawings not only accompany and inform his painting during intense periods of activity, they also exist outside this realm as autonomous works in their own right. Hockney produces drawings at every available opportunity, executing rapid sketches for paintings, references 𓃲for his repertoire of ideas and highly finished works independent from any formal function.

The process of draw💎ing has informed Hockney's approach to every medium, including painting, set design and his photographic experiments.  He was educated at Bradford Grammar School and from there went on to Bradford School of Art. His early teachings were based firmly on the principle of drawing as the intellectual discipline which underpins all artistic creativity, with the traditional study of perspective and anatomy of particular importance. Hockney's work from his time at Bradford led to him win a place at the Royal College of Art in London where he embarked upon a three year post graduate course in painting in 1959.

While a student at the RCA, Hockney met the American artist and fellow student R. B. Kitaj who encouraged him and his contemporaries to 'introduce dramas and ideas that interested them into their pictures' (David Hockney in: David Hockney by David Hockney: My Early Years, London 1976, p. 41). The resulting drawings, including those that follow, show how Hockney absorbed Kitaj's ideas along with the exaggerations or simplifications of scale, contour, colour and contrast offered by 'Primitive' artists, particularly the work of Jean Dubuffet. Paul Melia states that this so called "Outsider Art' "offered Hockney not only a model of formal rigour that contrasted with both academicism and abstraction, but also a broad set of 'expressionistic' conventions which provided him with an adequate means of representing his and his circle's social experience" (Paul Melia in: Exhibition Catalogue, Los Angeles, County Museum of Art, David Hockney, A Drawing Retrospective, 1996, p. 16).

Executed in the first years of the 1960s, the following nine works exemplify Hockney's early graphic style. Brimming with biographical references, coded meanings, intimate references and spontaneous thoughts, each work is imbued with Hockney's trademark wit and visual intelligence. In I Luv Sam, Walt, Peril of The..., Peter and Happy Circle, fleeting references to people and places are included as both text and image.  Playful in their knowing allusions, the works are both deeply personal and simultaneously accessible to the outside viewer. As Paul Melia writes, "By 1963 Hockney had to come to conceive of drawing as a practice that required a kind of artlessness, one that should be deployed to represent the decorative, the fugitive and the incidental." (Paul Melia in: Exhibition Catalogue, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, David Hockney, A Drawing Retrospective, 1996, p. 16). In this extraordinary group of early works, the majority of which have not been seen in public for over🐼 twenty years, we see Hockney embarking on his creative journey, assimilating influences from popular culture and adding his own unique experiences in works which would pave the way for his development as an artist.