Waiter, Alexandria, a drawing by David Hockney – £115,000 at Forum.
The performance of a picture at Forum Auction’s (25% buyer’s premium) latest Editions and Works on Paper auction in London demonstrated this growth.
On offer was a brightly coloured pencil and graphite sketch, 12 x 10½in (31 x 25cm), of an Egyptian waiter. Dating from 1963, it was among the works on paper picked out by the artist for the book 72 Drawings by David Hockney, Chosen by the Artist published in 1971.
Its last appearance at auction was back in 2012 at Christie’s South Kensington where it sold at £24,000. Having changed hands once since, it was pitched at £50,000-70,000 at Forum but was bid up to a final £115,000. The sum looked pretty strong for a sketch of this size and probably represented a healthy return for the seller.
A complete set of eight laminated giclée prints from Damien Hirst’s (b.1965) Virtues series also featured in the sale. Featuring images of cherry blossom, they were recently published by HENI Editions – in fact they were only released last year so the sale at Forum indicated how quickly this set had come to the secondary market.
Estimated at £80,000-120,000, the lot was knocked down at £95,000.
Pool resources
My Pool and Terrace, a David Hockney etching and aquatint – £15,000 at Wilson55.
Meanwhile, a Hockney print also drew demand at a live online sale of Modern & Contemporary Art held by auction house Wilson55 (22% buyer’s premium) of Nantwich, Cheshire.
My Pool and Terrace from 1983 was a signed etching and aquatint which was from the artist’s portfolio Eight by Eight to Celebrate the Temporary Contemporary, published by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Although it was part of an edition of 250, only a small number of copies have emerged at auction over the last year or so.
This example was in good condition with no obvious faults, just some very minor creases, stains and one or two spots of foxing in the margins.
The estimate of £5000-7000 was in line with previous prices at auction but after a strong competition it was knocked down at £15,000, the highest sum so far for this edition according to Artprice.
