David Hockney's "The Blue Guitar (Tokyo 178)" is a soft ground etching with aquatint from his celebrated Blue Guitar suite, created between 1976 and 1977 as the first plate in this influential series. The work exemplifies Hockney's masterful printmaking technique, combining delicate line work with vibrant colour to explore themes of artistic representation and perception inspired by Picasso's cubist compositions. Published by Petersburg Press in London and limited to an edition of 200, this impressively scaled print on Inveresk wove paper remains a significant example of contemporary printmaking from this pivotal period in the artist's career.