X, from Hockney's Alphabet, 1991

David Hockney's letter X comes from Hockney's Alphabet, the 1991 portfolio in which the artist reimagined all twenty-six letters as full-page colour lithographs. A white three-dimensional X, its faces ruled with fine hatching, crosses the centre of the sheet over a hexagon of colour — red and pink lattice above, deep green and royal blue below — the solid letter floating against flat planes. Hockney's Alphabet was conceived by the poet Sir Stephen Spender and published in 1991 to raise funds for the AIDS Crisis Trust. Hockney drew each of the twenty-six letters, and Spender invited a celebrated writer to respond to one apiece — among them Susan Sontag, Seamus Heaney, Iris Murdoch, Joyce Carol Oates, Martin Amis and Ian McEwan — pairing image and text in a singular dialogue between art and literature. This is the individual X plate: a colour lithograph on Exhibition Fine Art Cartridge paper, with full margins, measuring 12 3/5 × 9 2/5 in (32 × 24 cm), from the edition of 250, signed on the justification page by the artist and editor (a copy accompanies the work). Offered unframed; framing is available for an additional $295.