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Patrick Caulfield trained as a painter at the Royal College of Art, where David Hockney was one of his contemporaries. Caulfield made prints throughout his career, working exclusively in screen printing, a medium perfectly suited to translating the effects of his canvases, with their flat surfaces of pure undifferentiated color. Although reluctant to categorize himself as a pop artist, Caulfield’s work shares many characteristics of pop, including the choice of mundane objects or interiors for subject matter; the rejection of “fine art” handling of paint; and the cool, ironic tone of his images. His paintings and prints of the 1960s and early 1970s typically depict commonplace objects, elevating them to iconic status by taking them out of their everyday context and simplifying their representation to a basic black outline. Clearly indebted to Juan Gris, René Magritte, and Fernand Léger, these enigmatic still lifes also refer to the conventions of billboards and commercial sign writing.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016