Digging Up Glass
Digging Up Glass
Signed Print
David Hockney
£1,250-£1,900Value Indicator
$2,550-$3,900 Value Indicator
$2,300-$3,500 Value Indicator
¥11,500-¥18,000 Value Indicator
€1,500-€2,250 Value Indicator
$12,500-$19,000 Value Indicator
¥240,000-¥370,000 Value Indicator
$1,600-$2,450 Value Indicator
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
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Medium: Etching
Edition size: 100
Year: 1969
Size: H 11cm x W 13cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
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Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Location | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2023 | Dawsons, Berkshire | United Kingdom | |||
| August 2017 | Shapiro Auctioneers | Australia | |||
| May 2007 | Whyte's | Ireland | |||
| November 2004 | Bonhams New Bond Street | United Kingdom |
Meaning & Analysis
Digging Up Glass is an etching from 1969 by British artist, David Hockney. This etching depicts a moment when a piece of glass is being crushed under the foot of an anonymous human figure. The triangular forms representing pieces of a broken glass appear scattered at the bottom of the print, showing that half of the glass piece has already been destroyed. With a number of tiny particles floating in the air, the scene represents an active process of demolition, hinting at the implicit aspect of violence symbolised by the situation. Inspired by Brothers Grimm’s Old Rinkrank, the print provides a visual evocation of the main theme of a story about a princess who falls into the glass mountain and is imprisoned by an elderly man Rinkrank.
Hockney commented in the context of Six Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, his first handmade book of etchings published by the Petersburg Press in association with the Kasmin Gallery in 1970, “I’d always enjoyed the fairy tales very much and thought I'd like to illustrate them, make a book rather like the Cavafy book, taking some of the stories; I'd read them all, about three hundred and fifty.” Similarly to the Cavafy prints, in which the artist experiments with the poem’s subject matter rather than faithfully represents it, the Grimm etchings do not illustrate specific events, but evoke a particular world, atmosphere or trope defining the narrative.
