A group of 17 iPad drawings by David Hockney, titled “The Arrival of Spring,” hit the auction block at Sotheby’s London during a dedicated day sale on Friday, selling for a combined £6.2 million ($8.3 million). (All quoted prices include fees.) The total was more than double their high estimate, and the record price paid for a print by the artist was broken three times, ultimately reaching a high of £762,000 ($1 million) for The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 – 19 February (2011). The previous record was £504,000 ($693,069).
The series represented the largest group of Hockney iPad drawings ever to come to market. Fifteen of the 17 works achieved record prices for the subject across both editions (the other edition of the series is printed in a larger format).
Sotheby’s said that 40 percent of the drawings sold to American collectors, while 65 percent were bought online.
“Hockney’s iPad drawings are both impactful and uplifting,” Yessica Marks, head of prints for Sotheby’s Europe, told ARTnews. “Tonight’s white-glove results confirmed just how much Hockney’s work commands attention from collectors globally, standing as both a benchmark of artistic ingenuity and a testament to his enduring market appeal.”
She added that the sale “brought a spark to Frieze Week.”
“The spirited bidding and strong global participation all underscore the immense appreciation that exists for Hockney—and for the fearless experimentation that makes him the genius he is,” Marks said.
Hockney, 88, began the series in 2011, returning daily to a different location in Woldgate that spring. Sotheby’s said he had originally planned to paint en plein air but didn’t fancy standing in the cold British winter for long stretches. Raised in Bradford, Hockney spent many of his school holidays in East Yorkshire and turned instead to his iPad for the project. He later described the discovery of his digital medium as “a wonderful spring.”
Hockney made 94 drawings that season, eventually narrowing them down to 51, of which the 17 just sold are among the finest examples, according to the auction house. The full series was unveiled as part of his 2012 retrospective at London’s Royal Academy of Arts.
The result brings the running total for modern and contemporary art sold by Sotheby’s London over the past six months to £240 million ($322 million). The house took £47.1 million ($63.3 million) of that figure from its contemporary art evening sale on Thursday in the British capital, largely thanks to Francis Bacon’s Portrait of a Dwarf (1975), which hammered above its £9 million (12 million) high estimate, landing at £13.1 million ($17.6 million).
