David Hockney, An Image of Ken, from Moving Focus, 1985, is one of the most personal and visually distinctive portraits from David Hockney’s landmark Moving Focus series, created during one of the artist’s most inventive periods. The work depicts Kenneth Tyler, the celebrated master printer and longtime collaborator who played a central role in Hockney’s ambitious printmaking projects. Through expressive line work and deliberately altered proportions, Hockney transforms the traditional portrait into an engaging exploration of personality, perception, and the act of looking.

By the early 1980s, Hockney had become increasingly dissatisfied with the fixed viewpoint of traditional Renaissance perspective. Influenced by Cubism, his photographic “joiners,” and his continuing investigations into how people experience space over time, he developed compositions in which several viewpoints could exist within a single image. The Moving Focus series represents one of the clearest expressions of these ideas, combining portraits, interiors, and architectural spaces through constantly changing perspectives.

Rather than presenting Kenneth Tyler through a conventional likeness, An Image of Ken distorts and rearranges his facial features to suggest several moments of observation at once. His oversized glasses dominate the portrait, while his eyes, forehead, nose, moustache, and mouth appear to turn in slightly different directions. A telephone receiver held beside his face further divides the composition, creating a sense that Tyler is being observed while speaking and moving. The energetic black lines and monochromatic surface give the image an immediate, almost spontaneous quality. The result is unmistakably Hockney: affectionate, intelligent, experimental, and visually engaging.

Works from Hockney’s 1980s period are highly valued for the way they combine personal subjects with major conceptual and technical experimentation. With a standard edition of only 20, An Image of Ken is among the rarer prints from the Moving Focus series. Its intimate subject, distinctive visual language, and close connection to Hockney’s collaboration with Tyler Graphics make signed examples especially desirable and increasingly difficult to acquire.

Produced in collaboration with the master printers at Tyler Graphics, An Image of Ken demonstrates Hockney’s remarkable command of lithographic drawing. Printed on Moulin du Verger paper, the work preserves the freedom and immediacy of Hockney’s expressive marks while maintaining the clarity and precision associated with Tyler Graphics editions. Published by Tyler Graphics Ltd. in Bedford, New York, the complete sheet measures approximately 30 by 22 inches. It stands as a refined and deeply personal example of Hockney’s mastery of the printmaking medium.

Museum Collections:

The significance of An Image of Ken is reflected by its inclusion in the permanent collections of several internationally recognized museums, including:

Tate, London

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Its presence in these prestigious institutions underscores the importance of both the Moving Focus series and Hockney’s innovative contributions to late twentieth-century portraiture and printmaking.

This example, numbered from the exceptionally limited edition of only 20 and hand signed and dated by David Hockney, represents an outstanding opportunity to acquire one of the artist’s most distinctive and personal print editions. An additional 12 artist’s proofs were produced outside the standard edition. Combining rarity, historical significance, exceptional craftsmanship, and its connection to Hockney’s influential partnership with Kenneth Tyler, An Image of Ken is an important work for serious collectors of modern and contemporary art.

David Hockney’s Moving Focus series, created between 1984 and 1986, is one of the most ambitious print projects of his career. Moving beyond traditional fixed perspective, Hockney used shifting viewpoints, fragmented forms, expressive drawing, and vivid color to explore how people experience subjects over time. Featuring portraits, interiors, still lifes, chairs, and views of the Hotel Romano Angeles in Mexico, the series was produced with Kenneth Tyler using innovative combinations of lithography, etching, screenprinting, collage, and handmade papers. Together, the works represent a major achievement in modern printmaking and a powerful exploration of movement, perspective, and memory.

The works in David Hockney’s Moving Focus Series (1984–1986) include: Conversation in the Studio, Tyler Dinning Room, Pembroke Studio Interior, Pembroke Studio with Blue Chairs and Lamp, Two Pembroke Studio Chairs, The Perspective Lesson, Amaryllis in Vase, Red Celia, Celia in Green Hat, Hotel Acatlan: First Day, Hotel Acatlan: Second Day, Hotel Acatlan: Two Weeks Later, Views of Hotel Well I, Views of Hotel Well II, Views of Hotel Well III, Walking Past Two Chairs, An Image of Gregory, An Image of Celia, An Image of Celia, State I, An Image of Celia, State II, An Image of Celia Study, Portrait of Mother I, Portrait of Mother II, Portrait of Mother III, An Image of Ken, White Porcelain, A Picture of Two Chairs, Number One Chair.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:

David Hockney An Image of Ken, from Moving Focus, 1985 is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonné and related texts. Copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the sale of the work.

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, catalogue number 284.

1. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this artwork.