David Hockney, O.M., C.H., R.A. (b. 1937)

During the 1980s and 1990s, Hockney designed several stage sets for operas, ballets and theatre productions, including Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Ravel’s L’Enfant and Satie’s Parade. These commissions had a profound effect on the artist, who remarked ‘all the work I have done in the theatre has been useful to me and I have never regretted any of the time spent on it. What is most important is using real space.  You begin to think spatially much more’ (David Hockney in N. Stangos (ed.), That’s the way I see it, London, 1993, p. 71). This influence is apparent in Eiffel Tower, Boulevard and Ball, in which the scene is laid out as though on a stage.