In 1963 Hockney made a series of works playing on the idea of a painting’s surface as a boundary. Here, John Kasmin (a British art dealer who promoted British and American Pop Art in the 1960s) seems trapped inside a tapestry. The idea for this work came from 17 cent. Italian painting, showing a tapestry with figures in front of it. But Hockney took the game a step further by commissioning a woven version of his painting. Whenan artist friend asked about the work, Hockney replied: “I told him it’s from my painting done from another painting of a tapestry done from a painting. He said: ‘Oh Dave could you lend me it? I’ll male a painting of it.’ A lovely spiral!”