Pillow talk …
With its lovers’ just-touching bodies, marked out in simple, delicate lines above the soft, rumpled sheets, David Hockney’s 1966 etching conjures a luminous scene of post-coital bliss.
The new classics …
It is part of a series: Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from CP Cavafy. Hockney often turned to art-historical or literary sources. The early 20th-century Greek poet’s writing gave gay love in the ancient world a contemporary immediacy.
Right here, right now …
Hockney’s print matches the poetry’s thrill, mixing sensuality, history and “the now”. It feels very modern with its stripped-down technique; more so with its intimate subject matter.
City limits …
The artist had travelled to Cavafy’s home city, Alexandria, in 1963. It was in Beirut in 1966, though, where he found the cosmopolitan energy the poet channelled.
Friends and lovers …
While imbued with the poetry’s mood, what Hockney depicts is his own milieu. The two men are his friends, artists Mo McDermott and Dale Chisman.
Included in The Printed Line, The Dick Institute, Kilmarnock, to 7 September
