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Hockney acknowledges Picasso’s profound influence on his artistic development. His admiration began in 1960 when Hockney, then a student at the Royal College of Art in London, attended the major retrospective of Picasso’s work at the Tate Britain. The exhibition, which showcased Picasso’s mastery of perspective and stylistic versatility, left a lasting impression. Hockney was not alone, news outlets at the time dubbed this exhibition an ‘art blockbuster’ and even cited it as the inception of a so-called wave of ‘Picassomania’. Hockney was so captivated that he returned to the exhibition eight times, each visit offering new insights into Picasso’s techniques.

At the Royal College of Art, Hockney noted that students naturally divided into two groups: one aligned with traditional artistic practices and the other more experimental, embracing abstraction and expressionism. Hockney gravitated toward the latter, finding comfort in Picasso’s ability to redefine artistic norms.

This reverence for Picasso is evident in key works from Hockney’s oeuvre. The Student: Homage to Picasso (1973) and Artist and Model (1973-74) centre Picasso within their visual dialogue, imagining interactions between the two artists. These works not only pay tribute to Picasso but also highlight Hockney’s willingness to engage directly with the legacy of a master while forging his own artistic identity. The Student: Homage to Picasso sees a recognisable Hockney with his circular glasses and Panama hat, approaching a plinth topped with a larger-than-life head of a young Picasso. With a drawing board under his right arm, Hockney hints at approaching this sculpture as if to study not only the art of Picasso, but the man himself.

Artist and Model further interrogates this relationship, though this time, a young naked Hockney sits opposite an older Picasso, wearing his famous striped shirt. Hockney appears to outstretch his hand to Picasso, who is holding a menu in his hands. Some have argued that this double-portrait interrogates a homoerotic narrative, insinuating that Hockney’s adoration of the artist runs deeper than impression; though this is largely unsubstantiated, Hockney lays himself bare, ready to take Picasso’s lead and blossom into the artist he later becomes. Though the pair never actually met, this print insinuates the passing of artistic tradition from one generation to the next.

1973 was significant for it marked Picasso’s death and coincided with Hockney’s rise to prominence following his first major retrospective at Whitechapel Art Gallery in London in 1970. Picasso’s passing prompted Hockney to reflect on his impact on modern art, as well as his own practice. In the Autumn of 1973, Hockney moved to Paris and began collaborating with Aldo Crommelynck, the printmaker who had previously worked with Picasso.

This collaboration proved transformative, allowing Hockney to experiment with innovative printmaking techniques, including the sugar-lift process originally developed for Picasso. This method used a mixture of sugar and gouache that when applied to a plate kept the painterliness of an artist’s brushstroke, despite the graphic medium. These technical explorations became central to Hockney’s work, culminating in The Blue Guitar portfolio (1976-77), a body of work that bridges Picasso’s artistic legacy with Hockney’s own vision.

Hockney’s ongoing dialogue with Picasso reflects a deep and enduring respect for the 20th-century master. Through works that explicitly reference Picasso and others that subtly echo his influence, Hockney demonstrates the power of artistic legacy while charting his own path as one of the most significant contemporary artists.

Aside from this portfolio, Hockney has demonstrated his affection towards Paris in several other prints. Even prior to living there, Hockney made Rue de Seine (1971). This etching and aquatint delicately depicts the city he comes to love. The spiral metal railings seen beyond the ceiling-height windows and long draped curtains emulate Parisian design and elegance. In the vase adorned with koi carp, Hockney included a subtle nod to Japan, having also made a trip there that same year.

More overtly, Two Vases in the Louvre (1974) was created during his time living in Paris and displays clear influence from Crommelynck. The work showcases both hard- and soft-ground etching techniques. Here they are employed to emphasise depth in the composition. Hockney places the horizonal views out of focus but strongly accentuates the walls either side of the bay window. Hard-ground etching is used for the detailed vases, while the intricate patterns of the marble floor are depicted with a combination of techniques to create the illusion of light filling the space. Aquatint is employed akin to an ink or watercolour wash. This ‘involves biting with acid a fine network of lines around grains of resin’ explains historian Colta Ives, meaning that ‘the tiny etched channels hold ink that prints veils of tone.’

Paris clearly inspired Hockney and continued to be a source of inspiration – both as the homeplace of his master, Picasso, and as fertile ground for graphic experimentation.

One of Hockney’s most referential works is his portfolio The Blue Guitar (1976-77). Having displayed a propensity for literary themes throughout his career, this portfolio demonstrates his capacity to tell stories through illustration. It showcases his sensitivity to the nuances of storytelling and his childlike sense of wonder, creating fantastical imagery that inspires and narrates in equal measure. Hockney remarked, ‘I loved the idea of finding how you draw a glass mountain; it was a little graphic problem.’

The notion of combining art and literature has long been a tradition. Many masters, including Henri Matisse, Salvador Dalí, and Lucian Freud, have created illustrations to accompany novels or poems. David Hockney’s The Blue Guitar portfolio is also inspired by poetry. Its origin stemmed from the ekphrastic poem The Man with the Blue Guitar by American poet Wallace Stevens, written in 1937. Hockney first encountered the poem in the summer of 1976 while holidaying in Fire Island Pines, New York, when his close friend, the esteemed curator Henry Geldzahler, showed it to him. The poem instantly resonated with Hockney, who reflected: ‘It seemed to express something I felt about my own work at the time.’

Deciding to create a multi-layered artwork inspired by both Stevens’ poem and Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period painting The Old Guitarist (1903–04), Hockney flew to the Art Institute of Chicago to study the original artwork up close. Initially, he attempted a series of paintings to accompany Stevens’ poem but soon abandoned these in favour of etchings, using imagery from Picasso’s painting. Since the poem explores abstract notions – primarily the tension between imagination and reality – Hockney noted that the etchings ‘were not totally illustrative of the poem; they were just dealing with the ideas in the poem more.’

The portfolio consists of 20 etchings created at the studio of Aldo Crommelynck in Paris. The sugar-lift method is used by Hockney to produce a painterly effect. Hockney felt it was appropriate to use borrowed methodologies in this grand homage to the artist.

Hockney explained: ‘The etchings themselves weren’t conceived as literal illustrations of the poem, but as an interpretation of its themes in visual terms. Like the poem, they’re about the transformations within art as well as the relation between reality and the imagination, so there are pictures within pictures and different styles of representation juxtaposed and reflected and dissolved within the same frame, this ‘hoard of destructions’ that Picasso talked about.’

Hockney’s etchings bridge Stevens’ themes of imagination and reality with Picasso’s exploration of form. This portfolio marked Hockney’s shift from naturalism toward a personal reinterpretation of Cubism.

The Moving Focus Series consists of twenty-nine lithographs that highlight Hockney’s exploration of perspective, colour, and space, inspired by the principles of Cubism. These works most explicitly reference Picasso in terms of style. Picasso: the figurehead of Cubism, uses similar iconographies of fragmented faces, ghostly traces of mirrored expressions and a smattering of limbs to make up his compositions. Hockney also employs bold colour and even extends this effect to the frames which are also painted by the artist. Though Cubist artists did not tend to do this, they did often employ trompe l'oeil techniques to give the illusion of one.

The influence of Cubism is particularly evident in the portraits of the Moving Focus Series that provide a dynamic record of the sitter over a period. The repetition of certain body parts suggests that the subject has moved slightly throughout the sitting, with multiple viewpoints reflecting shifting facial expressions. The various states of Hockney’s lithograph An Image of Celia (1984-86) create a fragmented effect that is technically complex. The artist used multiple plates, resulting in a symphony of over forty distinct colours. A variation of this portrait of Celia Birtwell’s face featured on the cover of Vogue Paris (December 1985 – January 1986). The issue also included many of Hockney’s photographic collages and a forty-one-page essay challenging the conventions of perspective in Western art.

The Moving Focus is one of Hockney’s most self-referential series to date. There is a clear link to his photographic works. He also engages with art history, incorporating iconic motifs, like the chair, that allude to his predecessors. At its core, Cubism shapes these images, encouraging viewers to delve deeper and explore the layered narratives within.

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