Sun

Sun is a major color lithograph and screenprint created in 1973 by British artist David Hockney in collaboration with the skilled printers Ron Olds, Donna Rae Hirt, and Robert Knisel, and the influential Los Angeles workshop, Gemini G.E.L. Executed on heavy Arjomari wove paper, this work is a quintessential example of the complex printmaking techniques developed during the post-war period spanning 1951 to 1975. The piece is technically sophisticated, requiring the precise registration of multiple mediums-combining the tonal subtleties of lithography with the intense saturation afforded by screenprinting-to achieve its deeply layered effect.

Hockney, a leading figure in British Pop art, frequently used printmaking to explore themes of light, geography, and visual perception. While the artist is perhaps best known for depicting Californian swimming pools and domestic scenes, Sun moves away from figurative narratives toward an almost abstract representation of pure energy. The composition simplifies the celestial body into radiating fields of geometry and concentrated color, embodying the brightness and clarity associated with his adopted West Coast environment. The collaboration with G.E.L. was essential to the work’s successful execution; the workshop’s technical capacity allowed Hockney to push the boundaries of graphic methods and achieve a dense, optically vibrating surface unlike earlier works.

This significant print reflects the innovative approach to multiple production that characterized the early 1970s, establishing the collaborative environment of G.E.L. as central to Modernist graphic output. Today, the work is recognized as a vital component of Hockney’s printmaking practice and resides in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art, where it serves as a central reference point for studies concerning British contributions to post-war art.