Self-Portrait, July 1986

In February of 1986, Hockney began experimenting with a friend’s copy machine and within an hour he had discovered it was, in fact, a new type of printing machine. The ‘home-made prints’ he produced using the machine disrupted the traditional processes of color printmaking, traditionally a painstaking process that involves many layers and experts to match each new section of the print.

Hockney described the process, ‘with these copying machines, I can work by myself — indeed you virtually have to work by yourself; there’s nothing for anyone else to do — and I can work with great speed and responsiveness. In fact, this is the closest I’ve ever come in printing to what it’s like to paint: I can put something down, evaluate it, alter it, revise it, all in a matter of seconds.’