David Hockney (* 1937), The 7 Stone Weakling (aus der Folge: A Rake’s Progress, Blatt 6), 1961-63, Radierung, © Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk, © Photo: Christoph Irrgang.

David Hockney, from Rake's Progress Series (1961-2), David Hockney, 30 x 39 cm, Etching.

David Hockney, Mo in St. Mawes, 1967, Farbstift, Tusche, © Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk, Foto: Christoph Irrgang.

Hamburger Kunsthalle
Stiftung öffentlichen Rechts
Glockengießerwall
Hamburg
+49 (0) 40 428 131 200
Janssen-Kabinett
David Hockney,
Myself and my Heroes
August 17, 2007-January 6, 2008

On the occasion of David Hockney’s 70th birthday, Hamburger Kunsthalle
shows a selection of its collection of graphic series and drawings. Since the beginning of the 1960s Hockney was intensely engaged with printmaking. Myself and my Heroes was one his first etchings. The title of the exhibition therefore directly references the work, while at the same time looks at Hockney’s actual heros, literary and historic art figures, as well as his friends whom he depicted in numerous portraits.

Central to the exhibition are both the erasure series A Rake’s Progress (1961-63) and Fourteen Poems by C. P. Cavafy (1966). With the16 etchings from the cycle A Rake’s Progress, Hockney references the painting series (London, Sir John Soane museum) of the same name the erasure series of William Hogarth (1697-1764) from 1735. In the series Hogarth describes the rise and situation of his hero who senselessly squanders a large inheritance and in the end lands in the crazy house. Hockney relocates the morality play into the New York of the 1960s and connects the story to personal experiences. In July, 1961 Hockney traveled for the first time in the USA. The relatively free and open life in New York reminded him of Hogarth’s representation of life in the 18th century. " When I came back, I decided to do A Rake's to Progress, because it was a way to tell a story about New York and my experience." In the resulting etchings Hockney describes his impressions as a modern version of the Hogarth pictures. He slips in to the role of the rake, cleverly producing his own artist's destiny. At the same time the artist criticises existing value systems and double standards of the 1960s in the failure of his heroes. The etchings originated during Hockney’s study at the Royal College of Art in London.

In the etchings for Fourteen Poems by C. P. Cavafy (1966/67), Hockney follows the path of Greek author Konstantinos Kavafis (1863-1933). In his erotic poems Kavafis describes his own homosexual imagination and dreams. Hockney discovered Kavafi’s verses during his student years in London. In 1966 he traveled to Beirut to create the first drawings for the prints. A Rake's Progress is depicted in a picturesque aquatint of Black and Red, the prints are dedicated to Kavafis using the spare lines of the poems to poems which are also appropriate to the drawings in the exhibition.

Approximately 40 etchings and drawings from the supplies from the collection of Kupferstichkabinetts der Hamburger Kunsthalle, supplemented by loans from private collections are shown.

David Hockney (* 1937), The Gospel Singing (aus der Folge: A Rake’s Progress, Blatt 4), 1961-63, Radierung, © Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk, © Photo: Christoph Irrgang.