This iconic painting of a swimming pool is about to hit the auction block - and at $80 million, it's expected to shatter a major record

CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2018

"Portrait of an artist (Pool with Two Figures)."

• David Hockney's "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" is poised to shatter auction records on November 15.
• It's expected to be sold at a starting point of $80 million.
• That would make it the most expensive painting ever sold at auction by a living artist.

A David Hockney painting is expected to shatter auction records by more than $30 million on Thursday.

The painting in question, "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" will be going on sale as part of Christie's Post War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale.

As Business Insider previously reported, the current record for most expensive work sold by a living artist was Jeff Koons' orange "Balloon Dog," which sold for $58.4 million in 2013. (Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce site, capitalized on the sale by selling knockoff replicas of the sculpture for $500.)

According to CNN, the 81-year-old Hockney is considered "one of the world's most popular artists." His current auction record stands at $28.5 million.

In an email to Business Insider, Alex Rotter, Co-Chairman Post-War and Contemporary Art for Christie's, noted that the painting "stands as one of the great masterpieces of the modern era."

"David Hockney's brilliance as an artist is on full display with this monumental canvas, which encapsulates the essence of the idealized poolside landscape, and the tremendous complexity that exists within human relationship," he continued. "With this painting, Hockney cemented his placement within the real of history's most venerated artists," he continued.

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Hockney moved to California from England in 1964 and it was then, as reported by Robb Report, that he started taking great interest in the theme of swimming pools. This painting is all the more recognizable in that, Robb Report notes, it "...combines two of his most recognizable motifs - the swimming pool... and the device of the double portrait."

The projected $80 million price tag still feels comparatively modest (keyword: comparatively) in the scheme of historic art sales worldwide. "Salvator Mundi," a painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, sold for an eye-popping $450.3 million at a November 2017 Christie's auction, making it the most expensive piece of art ever sold.

Hockney's painting, if it sells at its projected value, won't be the only record-smashing auction sale 2018 has seen. It will join the likes of a bottle of Macallan 60-year-old, which sold at auction for $1.1 million in October and destroyed the record for the most expensive whiskey ever sold.