10 May


artist profile

David Hockney
A Lawn Being Sprinkled, 1967
acrylic on canvas
60 x 60 in. (152.4 x 152.4 cm)

Provenance:
Landau-Alan Gallery, New York
Claus Borgeest, Neuenhain, Germany
Galerie Neuendorf, Hamburg
L.A. Louver Gallery, Los Angeles
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1978

“A Lawn Being Sprinkled” was the first work by David Hockney of any kind that I purchased before meeting and subsequently having the privilege of working with David for the past 46 years.

In 1977, Norman Lear and his first wife Frances were becoming interested in contemporary art, inspired initially by Los Angeles-based artists. L.A. Louver, being located in the heart of Venice’s art community (Pasadena and Hollywood notwithstanding), drew the couple to the gallery, and subsequently, we were privileged to be invited to attend several wonderful events in their Brentwood home.

On one such occasion in 1978, Norman wondered if I could possibly be able to secure a painting by David for their collection; prompted to ask, perhaps, solely by my English accent. I often wondered.

Having only met David once while in art school, where he came to lecture in 1968 -- how was I to begin without rudely chasing him down on the phone?

I remembered that while David’s subjects for paintings were often based in Southern California, they were never exhibited in Los Angeles, but rather more with Charles Allen in New York City, who also hardly ever sold David’s work to private American collectors. Rathermore, Hans Neuendorf, a Berliner, would often acquire paintings from Charles and exhibit them in his gallery -- a converted World War II bunker in Hamburg.

My phone call inquiry to Hans, who had deep friendships with Los Angeles-based artists (Billy Al Bengston, Ken Price, Robert Graham, Ed Ruscha and Peter Alexander -- I could go on), was indeed fruitful. My heart skipped a beat – he had “A Lawn Being Sprinkled” for sale for USD $50,000, which was a record price at that time. I also wondered if Hans had in his library a copy of David’s first museum catalogue from his exhibition at The Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1970, which pre-Amazon and search engines, proved very difficult to obtain. I agreed to purchase the painting without any means to pay the bill, so long as Hans would also provide me with his copy of the catalogue.

“You mean you will not buy the painting without the catalogue?” he asked.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Hans laughed, as only he is able, and the agreement was made.

Since that time, we have remained very good occasional close friends. Hans went onto make business art dealing in many other extraordinary ways and was the founder of Artnet.

I sold “A Lawn Being Sprinkled” to Norman and established an ongoing friendship for the remainder of his life. From time to time, Norman would request an appraisal for insurance purposes, and I would offer to purchase the painting. The last occasion was a few years ago, when I advised a value of USD $20,000,000. “Good to know,” was his response. He ultimately decided not to sell the picture.

Norman only lent his painting once, to David’s retrospective, and we replaced it in the entrance of his home with a perfect digital reproduction.

-Peter Goulds, May 2024