David Hockney, original Vogue Paris poster on paper

A David Hockney Vogue Paris poster born from an editorial carte blanche

Every December, the magazine Vogue Paris The magazine entrusted its issue to a guest designer, who was free to design the cover and a series of pages according to their own agenda. In 1985, this carte blanche was given to David Hockney. The British artist presented a lengthy visual essay dedicated to challenging classical perspective in Western art, combining drawings, paintings, and photocollages from his research at the time.

The Claude Bernard Gallery, located at 7-9 rue des Beaux-Arts in Paris since 1957, is extending the event with an exhibition entitled Images and thoughts for "Vogue" Paris magazine, presented from December 10, 1985 to January 15, 1986. It is for this event that the poster presented here was published, printed in offset by Imprimerie Union in Paris.

A composite portrait inspired by Cubism

The composition features a female bust constructed from an assemblage of paper fragments, each slightly offset from the others. The face is doubled: the left eye slips off its axis, the hand rises along the cheek, while the striped bodice unfolds in bold black hatching. The background, rendered in superimposed blues and rapid crosshatching, serves both as decoration and structure.

This way of constructing the image from multiple viewpoints rather than a single perspective constitutes the heart of Hockney's work in the 1980s. The David Hockney Vogue Paris poster gives an immediate reading of this: the postmodern reinterpretation of Picasso's cubist vocabulary, claimed by the artist, is perfectly legible in an accessible publishing format.

David Hockney, a major figure in British art

Born in Bradford in 1937 and passing away in London in June 2026, David Hockney graduated from the Royal College of Art in London in 1962. Settling in California a few years later, he found the villas and swimming pools that would become a recurring motif in his work. A leading figure of Pop Art in the 1960s, a portraitist, printmaker, photographer, and set designer, he constantly reinvented his means of expression, from academic painting to drawings created on a tablet after the age of seventy. His vibrant palette and sense of composition make him one of the most acclaimed British artists of the 20th century.^e and XXI^e centuries.

Technical specifications of the poster

This is an original vintage poster, printed offset on paper in 1985, and not a contemporary reprint or reproduction. The lower cartouche displays the artist's name in capital letters, the exhibition title, the dates and address of the gallery, as well as the copyright and printing information. The print was neither signed nor numbered, in accordance with the practice of gallery exhibition posters of that period.

Condition of the David Hockney Vogue poster

The print is in good vintage condition. It retains the original folding marks, characteristic of posters stored flat for several decades, as well as a few handling marks located at the edges. These signs of use disappear visually once framed and mattified. The colors remain vibrant, without significant fading, and the paper shows no tears. Framing under UV-protective glass is recommended for long-term preservation.

We love this poster for what it captures of a specific moment: when Hockney, at the height of his exploration of perspective, gained access to a fashion magazine and used it to deliver a theoretical essay in images. Few exhibition posters possess such a density of intention. The vintage, unsigned offset print remains one of the most accessible entry points into the artist's work, at a time when his market value was solidifying. Almost all copies in circulation have their original creases: this is not a flaw, but rather the hallmark of a print that truly lived its life. We recommend careful framing, which is all that is needed to restore the composition's vibrant colors.

The team The Auctionlab