David Hockney’s Stanley at 8 Weeks, 1986 is an early and particularly personal depiction of Stanley, one of the artist’s dachshunds who would later become a recurring subject throughout his work. Created when Stanley was just eight weeks old, the work was produced as a home-made colour print using an office copy machine, demonstrating Hockney’s early experimentation with everyday reproduction technology as an artistic medium. Printed on Arches Text laid paper and measuring 27.9 × 21.5 cm, Stanley at 8 Weeks was produced in a limited edition of 30.
The work is significant not only within Hockney’s depictions of his dogs, but also within his broader exploration of unconventional methods of image-making. During the 1980s, Hockney experimented extensively with photocopiers and other emerging technologies, interested in how machines designed for reproduction could instead be used to create original works of art. Stanley at 8 Weeks brings together this technical experimentation with an intimate domestic subject, anticipating the numerous paintings, drawings and prints of Stanley and Boodgie that Hockney would produce over the following decade.
