David Hockney (b. 1937) Great Pyramid at Giza with Broken Head from Thebes. Painted in 1963. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: IT MADE £3,513,250
A landmark Egyptian painting by David Hockney will feature at Christie’s Post-War & Contemporary sale in London on February 13. Dating from 1963 Great Pyramid at Giza with Broken Head from Thebes is the only surviving canvas to commemorate the artist’s first trip to Egypt at the age of 26. In terms of style, scale and composition it marks a watershed in his practice. It was commissioned by art critic David Sylvester and journalist Mark Boxer at the Sunday Times. The painting has been in a private collection for 40 years and this is the first time it has come to auction. It is estimated at £2.5-3.5 million.
Francis Outred, Christie’s head of Post War and Contemporary Art said: “The style of the painting is unmistakably Hockney, the artist breaking up the foreground with a piece of piping, forming a stark contrast to the broken Head of Thebes lying buried in the sand. In doing so, the artist was drawing a clear link between ancient and modern, the human and natural landscape.”
Since it was first exhibited in 1963 this painting has featured in major shows including the Calouste Gulbenkian exhibition of important post-war artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Francis Bacon and Jasper Johns at the Tate Gallery, London in 1964, Hockney’s major retrospective at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London in 1970 and in Paris at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Palais du Louvre in 1974.