Glass Table With Objects
Signed Print

Half fantastical landscape, half still life, Glass Table With Objects is an enigmatic work by David Hockney. We are shown a large glass table with solid pillars for legs, upon which rest a series of objects, perhaps sculptures, perhaps natural, which recall the lumpy hills and mountains of his landscapes or backgrounds for series such as Illustrations For Six Fairy Tales From The Brothers Grimm. Rather than objectively portraying reality here Hockney appears to be experimenting with the limits of perception and representation, preferring to confuse the viewer with the unusual surface and pattern of these objects for which we struggle to find a reference point. Produced as a lithograph the work has all the qualities of a drawing, with its faint, almost pencil like, shading and overall feeling of lightness which puts it at a distance from heavier inky styles of some of his other lithographs. Here Hockney has beautifully recreated the surface qualities of the table’s metal legs that appear almost marbled in their reflection of light. As always for this artist, light is an important feature of the work, and with it shadow. Each object, as well as the table, casts its own shadow, adding a further layer of enigma to the scene.