DIGITAL PRINTS MARKET REPORT

Published: 25th April 2023

A report looking at our ‘Focus Editions’ which is limited to the Computer Drawings, Yosemite Series and Arrival of Spring Series

Below sets out some of the factors directly related to the artist and artworks that we believe have contribut- ed to the success of the digital works.

David Hockney
By the time the works were released, David Hockney had already secured his position within the history of art. His work was recognised as important by the pub- lic, press, museums and influential collectors. He had a well organised and professional studio team and the editions were released through his global network of highly respected primary market galleries.

The Artwork
The iPad works not only captured a moment in history, the digital revolution, but have been accepted as beau- tiful by the masses. Generally, the edition dimensions were large enough that they felt significant but not so big that they did not fit in homes or apartment - this kept the demand base large.

Exhibition History
Quickly the works toured the world through an impres- sive series of exhibitions and appearing at the big art fairs. The made the works recognisably Hockney.

Museum & Private Collections
The digital works began being acquired by important public and private collections, injecting more confi- dence into the market.

Quantity of Work
In total, there are in excess of 2,200 copies of works from our Focus Editions. This means that there is enough supply out there to keep a constant trickle of supply onto the market which keeps momentum and attracts a large amount of market participants.

2020-21 Covid: Art Market Moves Online
As covid hit, the art market was forced to adjust, and the online marketplace became turbo charged. Blue-chip prints proved to sell well as directly comparable auction prices existed, meaning clients were more comfortable buying without inspecting the works in person.

2020-21 Covid: Government Stimulus
Following the outbreak of the covid pandemic, governments around the world pumped trillions of dollars into the global economy. By the end of 2020, there was a lot of new money sloshing around the world and the art market began to heat up. This was proceeded by a record year in 2021.

2021 South Korean Art Market Boom
During 2021 South Korean art collectors rose in prominence and they came to form the bulk of our total Hockney enquiries. During the year, every secondary Hockney iPad we sold, we exported to South Kore and they paid top prices. Towards the end of the year, this Korean phenomenon seemed diminished and the European and US collectors returned.

2022 War in Ukraine
During 2021 and into 2022 we experienced constant growth of month-on-month enquiries. This peaked in Feb 2022 which coincided with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. This sent panic throughout the world and we experienced a monumental drop off in demand following this. Collectors became nervous and froze - many clients informed us they were taking a ‘wait-and-see’ strategy.

2022 High Inflation
By Q4 2022 it became clear there was high inflation within the world economies and the value of cash quickly began to become eroded. During the 2021 frenzy many mid-market artists began heating up but these markets had cooled by 2022. Fears of inflation sent col- lectors looking for safe blue-chip bets and Hockney met this criteria -> demand picked back up.

2022 Exchange Rate Volatility
Q3 and Q4 saw a lot of exchange rate volatility in response to global events. Notably the British GBP to USD hit a low of 1.07. As the UK has always been a big market for Hockney, this resulted in foreign buyers looking for relative bargains in the UK. The low in the GBP to USD coincided with the record Arrival of Spring results at Phillips London.

2023 Fears of Recession
As the prospects of recession loomed in 2023, enquiries dropped from newer collectors who had dominated the market in previous year. It appears the more seasoned collectors, who were sellers in 2021-22, are now returning to the market looking to capitalise.

Upon their initial release as primary works, our Focus Editions were sold at set prices depending upon size. There was no differentiation based on quality but some editions proved more popular than others and these were the first to sell out. We bought a number of pri- mary works and sold these for £23k in 2014 to our initial collectors. From all the conversations we have had with these clients, it appears few bought with investment as a key motivation. We believe it is this fact which has kept supply restricted despite a large amount of work being out there and prices rising.

2018 saw the first $100k result when a computer series Green Valley sold at Sotheby’s New York. From 2019 annual revenue and average prices grew year on year. This climaxed in Sept 2022 when Phillips London sold two regular edition Arrival of Springs in a single sale for £315k and £340k. This event, which enticed more sellers onto the market, combined with a large prima- ry market release in Oct 2022, led to a temporary sup- pression of prices in Q1 2023. Since then it appears that the excess supply has been traded off the market and Bonham’s delivered a big result at the start of Q2 2023, when it sold an Arrival of Spring for £278k.

From all auction results for the Focus Editions, London and Phillips come out on top. Although, if you look at the top 10 results, by location London and New York compete closely. Similarly, by auction house Christies, Phillips and Sotheby’s all feature almost equally within the top 10.

So far 2023 is set to be another record year in terms of annual auction sales. As prices and sales continue to grow, more market participants are drawn into the market, compounding it’s growth. It certainty has not been a linear progression by any of the key metrics but what is clear is that the market has been moving in an upward direction.

Drawn in 2008 using photoshop and then printed on paper using an inkjet, the computer series was the first major series of digital works released by Hockney. The images comprise of both portraits and timeless scenes of nature.

Historically we have experienced more demand for the nature scenes and A Bigger Green Valley current- ly holds the auction record for the series, selling for $434,482 at Phillips London in June 2021.

From our Focus Editions, the computer series has had less consistent results with the highest bought in rate. It has also had the least number of works resold. All of this has created a higher degree of uncertainty making sales of the series more challenging.

We do however have confidence for the long run in the nature scenes as they are works of incredible beauty and detail. Like all our Focus Editions, it is usually hard to convince owners to part with the works as they were generally bought for the love of the art.

Although Hockney created other works using his iPad in 2010, we consider the Yosemite series his break- through body of work in this new medium. The series was created during two trips to Yosemite. In 2010 he travelled there and created 24 works which were re- leased in a smaller format and then in 2011 he returned to create 5 more works which were then printed out in a large format of varying size.

Some editions have proven more popular with clients being seemingly prepared to pay much more for one image over another from the same series.

We have experienced a big misalignment between auction and our private prices. During 2021 when auc- tion supply was tightening, we experienced our record year in terms of volume and sale prices up to $134,400. The auction market caught back up in Sept 2022 when Phillips sold a regular edition for $145,261.

As the Arrival of Spring series have risen, many collec- tors have been priced out of this market and have began to buy Yosemite’s instead. Q1 2023 was one of our most successful quarters for the series.

A full list of editions of the series referenced in ‘Focus Editions’ can be found at https://www.hockney.com/works/digital/

‘Annual auction sales revenue’, ‘Global Auction Revenue by City’ and ‘Top 5 Selling Auction Houses by Revenue’ graphs refer to the Computer Drawings, Yosemite Series and Arrival of Spring series. The data was taken from an Artnet.com auction database price search. Although Artnet is the worlds most comprehensive and respected art price database, It is possible that Art- net may have made some errors or is missing data.

‘Works Sold at Auction’ graph refers to total number of Computer Drawings, Yosemite Series and/or Arrival of Spring works to come to auction during the stated time. The data was taken from an artnet price database search.

‘Fees’ buyers premium 26% is quoted from both Sotheby’s Buyers Premium Chart and Christies Final Information accessed on 25th April 2023;\https://www.christies.com/buying-services/buying-guide/financial-information/ https://www.sothebys.com/en/docs/pdf/1-feb-2023-buyers-premium-chart.pdf

The Vendors Commission is a privately negotiated fee and we have quoted the num- bers based on our past experiences with both auction houses

‘Annual Auction Sales’, ‘Annual Auction Lots’ and ‘Average Price’ graphs refer auction sale results for the Computer Series works only. The data was sourced from an Artnet price database search.

‘Annual Auction Sales’, ‘Annual Auction Lots’ and ‘Average Price’ graphs refer auction sale results for the Yosemite Series works only. The data was sourced from an Artnet price database search.

‘Annual Auction Sales’, ‘Annual Auction Lots’ and ‘Average Price’ graphs refer auction sale results for the Arrival of Spring Series works only. The data was sourced from an Artnet price database search.

Top 10 auction results refers to the top auction sales for Computer Drawings, Yosemite Series and Arrival of Spring series works only and was quoted from an Artnet price databse search.

We Do Not Represent David Hockney
Geist is a secondary market dealer and does not directly represent David Hockney in any capacity.

Artnet Sources
As described in Appendix, much price data has been quoted from Artnet auction price database which is the world’s most compehewnsive database. From time to time, Artnet does make mistakes and it is possible that some auction sales may not be included within the price database.

Our Opinions & Accuracy of Information
Any opinions expressed in this report are our opinions only and we do not guarentee them to be fact. This report is the culmination of detailed research and years of conversations with David Hockney collectors and sales experience. We do not guarentee the accuracy of any information included.

Hockney Editions
The number of Hockney editions in existence stated is taken from the editions published on Hock- ney.com as well as other editions we are aware of that have sold in the past. There is currently no comprehensive public list of all editions that Hockney has created relating to the Compuer Drawings, Yosemite Series and Arrival of Spring series. It is possible that more editions exist than what we have stated or in the future Hockney releases new editions based on old designs.

No Investment Advice. No liability.
Nothing within this document constitutes investment advice and we are not liable for any decisions or losses that result from you reading any information included within this report. We strongly rec- ommend that you indepedendtly double check all facts if they may be important to any decision you are considering. The value of art can go down as well as up.

Copyright Credit, David Hockney
All images of artworks included within this free publication are the copyright of David Hockney.