David Hockney,
(1987), Contemporary Art Evening Auction, Sotheby’s, New York, 12 May. Estimate: $1.8m-$2.5m
The first portrait by David Hockney from the late 1980s to appear at auction in more than ten years, this work makes direct reference to Hockney’s hero, Pablo Picasso and the Cubist technique of forming composite images with multiple views. It depicts Ian Falconer, a set designer and illustrator, who was Hockney’s long-time collaborator and former partner. Falconer served as a frequent model and muse for Hockney throughout the 1980s and even moved to Los Angeles to be with him. Although their romance had fizzled out by August 1983, they remained close and Hockney invited Falconer to work with him on many of his stage design projects during the 1980s and 90s. Falconer would later go on to date the fashion designer and film director Tom Ford, who gave the main character of his 2009 film