Figure 19.2 Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972, by David Hockney, acrylic on canvas, 210 × 300 cm. Introspective and remote, Peter Schlesinger (who was Hockney’s boyfriend and muse) looks down on the swimmer, who we presume is Hockney himself. The painting shows their deteriorating relationship; in contrast to the naturalistic depiction of the landscape, the pool and swimming figure are carefully patterned and abstracted.
design and many other kinds of popular culture in addition to fine-art media such as painting and sculpture.
The Art Market Today In May 2019, the record was broken for the most expensive artwork by a living artist sold at auction. A stainless steel rabbit sculpture by Jeff Koons (b. 1955) sold at Christie’s for a cool $91.1 million (Fig. 19.1).
The price surpassed the previous sale of the celebrated painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) by David Hockney sold at Christie’s in New York for just over $90m in November 2018 (Fig. 19.2).
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The Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan (b. 1960) came to art relatively late in life, shifting from furniture design to sculpture in his twenties. His work soon captured public attention with its overt wit, but it also provoked more complex interpretations.
Cattelan’s famous 1996 sculpture, The Ballad of Trotsky, featured a taxidermy horse hanging from the ceiling by a saddle (Fig. 19.3).
The exhibit cleverly ‘switched’ the function of the saddle from a device for holding up a rider to one for holding up a horse, but it also questioned the traditional function of equestrian art as a means of promoting human power and authority. The piece was auctioned in New York in 2004 for $2.1m (£1.15m).
