David Hockney was the star at Frankfurt Book Fair, where he unveiled for the first time his signed TASCHEN SUMO, A Bigger Book. Several hundred journalists and art aficionados packed out the TASCHEN booth to catch their first glimpse of the monumental 500-page book, declared by Artnet as “the perfect showcase for Hockney’s vibrantly-colored, brilliantly perceptive works.”
TASCHEN SUMO
The event offered an unforgettable personal walk-through of Hockney’s oeuvre as he leafed through the SUMO and shared his memories of each of its featured works. Lingering over many of the book’s spreads and pull-outs, the artist celebrated its visual impact and image quality, stating that “the reproductions are absolutely marvelous, the best I’ve seen.”
The SUMO is conceived as a visual autobiography, spanning six decades of Hockney’s art. It has been personally curated by the artist over the past 15 months, together with Benedikt Taschen and editor Hans Werner Holzwarth. The book comes with a Marc Newson-designed bookstand and is limited to 10,000 signed copies, including a Collector’s Edition (No. 1,001–10,000) and four Art Editions of 250 copies each, complete with an ink-jet print of a Hockney iPad drawing. The first two Art Editions are already sold out.
