David Hockney. 220 for 2020. Art Edition No. 1–100 ‘Spilt Ink with Tests’

From a small, picturesque farmhouse in the rich fields and meadows of Normandy, David Hockney followed the changing seasons across 2020 and into the new year. He used his iPad to spontaneously depict impressions of the landscape surrounding him, catching the first spring blossoms, the smell of summer, the saturated colors of autumn, and the stark shapes of dark branches in winter time. The 220 (plus four bonus) iPad paintings in this book are printed with up to seven special colors to match the richness of the artist’s vision and tipped in on a dark blue paper stock. A short introduction by Hockney reveals how this planned project became a lifeline during the COVID lockdown, from which he spread his message of hope: “Remember they can’t cancel the spring.”

The book is accompanied by a smaller extra volume of ink and watercolor drawings: the complete facsimiles of two sketchbooks from 2019, starting in the vicinity of the artist’s Los Angeles home and following him along scouting trips around Normandy. Both volumes come in a clamshell box with the artist’s iPad painting of an aerial view of the Normandy house and garden on the inside of the lid.

Each of the 100 copies of this Art Edition includes an exclusive ink-jet print of a sketchbook drawing the artist made in 2019 upon his arrival in Normandy. Spilt Ink with Tests combines a scene of two overturned inkwells on a table with ten abstract stripes of differently colored inks and was printed in 2021 under the artist’s supervision in his Los Angeles studio.

Art Edition (No. 1–100) with a numbered original 11-color inkjet art print on cotton-fiber archival paper of a drawing from the sketchbook ‘2019 – Los Angeles, 11th August–1st July, July 2nd La Grande Cour’, titled Spilt Ink with Tests, printed 2021, signed and dated by David Hockney

Also available in three additional Art Editions of 100 copies respectively, each with a print signed by David Hockney, and as a signed Collector’s Edition (No. 401–2,020).