€44M HOCKNEY DOES IT AGAIN
THE hammer came down on a final bid of almost £38million (€44million) and with it fell another art world record for David Hockney.
A double portrait was snapped up for the astonishing sum following a bidding war – making it the most expensive painting by a living artist ever sold in Europe.
It comes just months after another work by him fetched a world record €81million in New York.
The most recent sale was held on Wednesday at Christie’s in London.
The painting, a double portrait of Henry Geldzahler and Christopher Scott, was sold to a mystery bidder. Painted by Hockney in 1969, the 2.1m by 3m canvas is widely regarded as a breakthrough moment in his career.
In November, another of the 81-yearold’s works vastly exceeded the world record for the most expensive painting by a living artist. Portrait Of An Artist (Pool With Two Figures) depicts his former partner, the artist Peter Schlesinger, peering down at an underwater swimmer. But dealer Hugh Gibson said art world experts regarded the Geldzahler and Scott painting as ‘more important’ than the piece which broke the world record.
‘Hockney is flavour of the month, and the [Geldzahler portrait] ended up quite cheap,’ he said. ‘But the air is quite thin at that level, there are few people who have £30million to spend on a painting.’
Last month the artist said he was not interested in the sums his works fetched.
‘The price of my pictures happens in auction houses, which is nothing to do with me,’ he said. ‘What I do is paint and look at the world, and find joy in what I see.’
Last week an exhibition opened in Amsterdam in which Englishman Hockney’s work appears alongside those of Vincent van Gogh.