Prints & Posters

1986 David Hockney "Celia with Chair" Print

Appraisal: 1986 David Hockney "Celia with Chair" Print

Transcript

GUEST: Five years ago, my wife had the foresight to acquire it, and, uh, she went to a local coin shop, where she was trying to find a coin minted in the year that her father was born, because it was a big birthday. And she got the coins, and as she was headed out-- because this was also, uh, a pawn shop-- she happened to see this picture hanging there. Uh, she didn't know anything about it, but she thought it was very whimsical, because of the characters. And so she bought it, brought it home. I believe it was about $130. I looked at it, and I said, "Hmm." Uh... But then, uh, I took a look at, uh, the signature, and last year, when there was a big sale of one of his paintings that set a record, I thought, "Well, we need to find out a little bit more about it."

APPRAISER: So you know the artist is David Hockney.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: He's probably the most famous living English artist.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Lives between England and Southern California.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: He's been working in printmaking since the 1950s.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Making lithographs, etchings, screen prints, both in, in Europe and in the United States. And by this midpoint in his career, in the 1980s, this, 1985, 1986, he turned away from the traditional printmaking technique of working with a workshop to produce a lithograph or an etching, and numerous people who are involved in that, to going all on his own to make these handmade photocopy prints. And that's what this is.

GUEST: Photocopies, very cool.

APPRAISER: It's a deluxe color photocopy. In order to do this, he would make several drawings, one for each of the colors. The red color, he'd put that on the photocopier...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Run a piece of paper through, print the red.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And then put that paper back in the tray.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Put the black part of the drawing on and run that through the photocopier.

GUEST: Interesting.

APPRAISER: So it's not just a drawing thrown on the photocopier.

GUEST: Right, right-- right.

APPRAISER: 'Cause that, that, he, he figured, correctly, would look too flat.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: This way, with the numerous photocopies on one sheet, you get more of an artful-looking print.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: You can see that it's a limited edition numbered in the lower left. It's signed by the artist, dated, and then it has a blind stamp in the lower right, too. And he's put that there just because he is both the artist and, in this case, the publisher. It looks like the colors are in great shape. It looks just as it might have when it was created. And it shows his admiration for and the influence of Picasso on his work.

GUEST: I believe it's called "Chair With Celia" or something. Is this Celia? And...

APPRAISER: Yeah. Celia was a friend of his. She was a designer, an English designer. And he made numerous portraits of her from the 1960s on through.

GUEST: Okay-- I'm sure she's more attractive than that, though.

APPRAISER: (laughs) It's nice, high-career David Hockney. And you, you had no expectations whatsoever...

GUEST: None at all-- my wife brought it home, and I said, "What is that?"

APPRAISER: And then you see on the news that...

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...he sells a painting at auction for $90 million.

GUEST: For $90 million.

APPRAISER: And I'm sure you're, like, "Oh, "we've got that Hockney over there on the wall. I wonder what that's worth today."

GUEST: Yeah, yeah, I kind of made that connection, yes.

APPRAISER: At auction, in this condition, which is mint, I would say, near-perfect...