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The first auction ever to be entirely devoted to the works of David Hockney features a highly topical photo-collage from the pro-smoking artist. 'Billy Wilder lighting his cigar,' made in 1982, is set to fetch up to £6,000 in Bonhams' sale of David Hockney Prints & Multiples on 31 October, which is collectively expected to generate around half a million pounds.

The demand for pieces by Hockney has never been higher, and the recent media interest surrounding the Bradford artist's controversial stance on smoking in bars and pubs has generated even greater interest in his work. This landmark sale will celebrate Hockney's contribution thus far to the artistic life of Great Britain, and will concentrate on his works on paper, primarily prints and multiples. Estimates range from £200 - 200,000.

More controversy comes in the shape of Hollywood blonde Theresa Russell, who is the erotic subject for a photo-collage made from 140 separate photographs. Russell is seen from above, nude on pink satin sheets, in a pose reminiscent of the early calendar pin-up photographs of Marylin Monroe. A femme fatale in many of her film roles, starring alongside the likes of Robert de Niro, Jack Nicholson and Harvey Keitel to name but a few, Russell portrayed the tragic Munroe in 'Insignificance' in 1985, the year after this work is dated. It is expected to fetch up to £40,000.

OZ OBSCENITIES

Further nudity is featured in a naked portrait of the editors of the counter-culture magazine 'OZ,' entitled 'For the Oz Obscenity Fund.' It is expected to fetch between £1,200 - 1,800. An extract from Richard Neville's "Hippie Hippie Shake" amusingly describes his sitting for Hockney: "I sat naked on a chair, as David Hockney, his eyes huge through pop specs, coolly appraised my loins. I felt shy and under equipped. The artist sketched quickly. Conversation was minimal...Jim was drawn in half-profile, revealingly clad in a short T-shirt. Unlike me, he professed to be perfectly happy with the way his genitals were depicted. Felix stole the sitting. Seated on a chair, with jaunty kerchief, legs splayed, cock dangling, he looked like a pirate poised for an orgy. I jokingly asked how he had buttered up Hockney, and forever afterwards he remarked to interviewers, 'Oh my goodness, it caused terrible dissension.... Richard was furious.'"

The sale's top lot is a vivid composition in which Hockney has created a veritable riot of colour that bursts across nearly two metres of purple paper. The pastel study for 'A Closer Grand Canyon' was acquired by the present owner from the Richard Gray Gallery in New York, and is expected to fetch £150,000 - 200,000.

Some of Hockney's most famous print sets, which are wonderful representations of his oeuvre, are to go under the hammer at this unique sale. 'A Rake's Progress' (1961) is renowned as one of Hockney's foremost works; a modern telling of Hogarth's 18th century moral satire. This set of 16 etchings, one poster and book are estimated to fetch £40,000 - 60,000. Another group portfolio set, 'Six Fairy Tales from The Brothers Grimm,' (1970), are presented in a complete book with text and 39 etchings, at £4,000 - 6,000. These beautiful illustrations were inspired by six of the Brothers Grimm most gruesome fairy tales, and Hockney presents vivid images capturing the mood or detail rather than the main event - a hallmark of his ideology and style.

Hockney's contribution to the "Homage a Picasso" is also represented by his 'Studies for Picassoid Picassos' (a series of drawings based on Picasso's sculptures) at £20,000 - 30,000, dated Paris 1973. An etching entitled 'The Student: Homage to Picasso' of the same year, and depicting the artist regarding one of Picasso's 'self-portrait' sculptures, is also included at £2,500 - 3,500.

Also among these some 99 lots are numerous photographs, postcards and signed posters - including his opera series - along with more personal representations of his late mother, and friend Henry Geldzahler, who poses languidly with a cigar. In the 1980's Hockney turned from the hustle and bustle of designing operas, experimenting with new techniques and media, and breaking ground in his paintings, to the intimacy of drawing the tranquillity of domestic life. He made scores of drawings of his two beloved dachshunds, Stanley and Boodgie, who were also the subjects of a series of 45 oil paintings made in 1995. A print of one of these paintings, 'Horizontal dogs,' is included in the sale at £2,000 - 3,000. The series is infused with a gentle lyricism that communicates his abiding affection for his pets.

Two copies of Hockney's much-loved shimmering 'Paper Pools' image are included at £2,000 - 2,000 each, and there are many representations of still life flowers, cacti and interiors, which look certain to be snapped up by Hockney aficionados on 31 October.

For more details visit the Bonhams web site.