David Hockney, Self-Portrait, July 1986 (MCAT 295), 1986

David Hockney, Self-Portrait, July 1986

Rare David Hockney Home-Made Print | 1986 | Edition of 60

David Hockney's Self-Portrait, July 1986 is one of the most distinctive and sought-after works from his pioneering series of Home-Made Prints. Created in 1986, the work captures Hockney at a pivotal moment in his career, experimenting with colour photocopying and redefining the possibilities of contemporary printmaking.

Rather than working with a traditional print studio, Hockney transformed an office colour photocopier into both camera and printing press. He constructed the image through successive layers of colour, creating a direct and highly responsive process that brought printmaking closer to drawing and painting.

Particularly remarkable is Hockney's choice of material. Rather than using ordinary office copy paper, he fed fine artist's paper — Arches Text paper — through the photocopier. The resulting surface has a richness and physical presence that distinguishes the Home-Made Prints from conventional office reproductions. The machine may have been commonplace, but the finished artwork is anything but.

About Self-Portrait, July 1986

In Self-Portrait, July 1986, Hockney turns the photocopier towards himself. The resulting portrait is intimate, immediate and intensely graphic, capturing the artist in the process of looking, experimenting and making.

The work was created across two sheets of Arches Text paper. This unusual format was not simply an aesthetic decision: the photocopier's limited paper size dictated the scale of the image. Hockney embraced this technical restriction, making the division between the two sheets an integral part of the composition.

This approach is characteristic of Hockney's wider practice. Throughout his career, he has repeatedly explored new technologies as ways of extending artistic expression — from photography and fax machines to photocopying and, later, digital drawing and the iPad.

The Home-Made Prints therefore represent an important chapter in Hockney's continuing investigation into how images can be created, reproduced and experienced. The David Hockney Foundation identifies the series as a significant 1986 experiment in using the office photocopier to create layered images comparable in process to lithography.

Why Collect David Hockney's Self-Portrait, July 1986?

Rare edition: Produced in an edition of just 60.
Important self-portrait: Hockney places himself at the centre of one of his most innovative printmaking experiments.
Pioneering technique: Created using an office colour photocopier as an unconventional printmaking tool.
Fine artist's paper: Printed on two sheets of Arches Text paper rather than standard office copy paper.
Important date: Created in 1986, during a particularly inventive period in Hockney's career.
Museum representation: Examples are held in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery and LACMA.
Strong auction history: An example from the edition achieved £57,150 at Phillips.
Connection to later digital work: The Home-Made Prints anticipate Hockney's later exploration of digital image-making.
Collector crossover: Particularly relevant to collectors of David Hockney, Modern British art, Pop Art, self-portraiture, works on paper and experimental printmaking.

David Hockney and Experimental Printmaking

David Hockney is one of the most important British artists of the post-war period, renowned for his paintings, drawings, prints, photography and digital works.

Experimentation has remained central to his practice. Hockney has consistently challenged established methods of image-making, embracing new technologies when they offered new possibilities for seeing and creating.

His 1986 Home-made Prints are an especially clear example of this approach. The office photocopier was an everyday commercial technology, but Hockney transformed it into a sophisticated artistic instrument.
The result sits somewhere between drawing, photography and printmaking. The artist could work quickly, make changes immediately and build the image through successive layers of colour.

As the Morgan Library & Museum notes, Hockney repeatedly fed paper through the colour photocopier until each colour of the drawing had been printed, producing a playful and direct image that retains evidence of the artist's hand.