Ultimate Hockney painting expected to break records

ONE of David Hockney’s famous “pool paintings” is coming to auction and is expected to sell in the $80 million range, easily breaking the record for a work by a living artist.

The British artist’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), to be auctioned at Christie’s on November 15, is considered one of his premier works.

Christie’s has estimated the work at about $80 million, but says it expects it to sell for more.

The previous record for a work by a living artist was set by Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog, which sold for $58.4 million in 2013.

The 1972 painting by Hockney, now 81, is “the holy grail of his paintings, from both the historical and the market perspectives”, said Alex Rotter, co- chairman of post-war and contemporary art at Christie’s.

He noted that it reflects both the European and the American perspectives of an artist who came to live in sunny California in the ’ 60s, and saw himself as living on both continents.

“It has all the elements that you would want in a Hockney painting,” Rotter said. He said writers have referred to the swimming pool as being sort of a self-portrait of Hockney, though he never confirmed that, just saying he was fascinated to paint moving water.