David Hockney Complete Prints Exhibition Vintage Poster 1968 HS

Year1968

Hand SignedLower Right in Pencil 

Condition Excellent 

Framed with PlexiglassWood Frame in Black 

Purchased fromAuction House 2021 

Story / Additional InfoRare vintage signed original poster. First edition Exhibition Poster for David Hockney Complete Prints at Galerie Mikro, Berlin, 1968. This David Hockney exhibition poster featuring his etching "Two Boys Aged 23 or 24" is an excellent example of his pioneering representation of gay identity and sexuality in the early to mid-1960s. His artwork broke taboos in a period when male homosexuality was illegal in England and such images were often deemed obscene.For many gay and bisexual people in the pre-law reform and pre-gay liberation period, Hockney’s art was a rare public expression of their lives and loves. It was psychologically and emotionally empowering at a time when the orthodoxy was that homosexuality was shameful and should be kept hidden. Although Hockney never saw himself as a gay activist or even a gay artist, he visually challenged the legal and social repression of gay and bisexual men. He asserted the importance of the human rights principle of freedom of expression. 

Certificate of AuthenticityArt Brokerage 

LID156944

David Hockney - United Kingdom

Art Brokerage: David Hockney is one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century. He is perhaps best known for his serial paintings of swimming pools, portraits of friends, and verdant landscapes. The artist's oeuvre ranges from collaged photography and opera posters, to Cubist-inspired abstractions and plein-air paintings of the English countryside. Often returning to a certain motif again and again, he probes the manifold ways one can see an image or a space. Hockney's exploration of photography's effect on painting and everyday life is evinced in his hallmark work A Bigger Splash (1967). "In art, new ways of seeing mean new ways of feeling; you can't divorce the two, as, we are now aware, you cannot have time without space and space without time," he has explained. Born on July 9, 1937 in Bradford, United Kingdom, Hockney attended the Royal College of Art in London alongside R.B. Kitaj. At school, he studied under both Francis Bacon and Peter Blake, but also credits Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse for influencing his distinctive and varied style. In 1963, the artist traveled to Southern California for the first time and fell in love with the bright sunshine and easygoing lifestyle. Since then, he has alternated living and working between Yorkshire, United Kingdom, and Los Angeles, CA. In 2017, the artist was the subject of a comprehensive retrospective which opened to critical acclaim at the Tate Gallery in London. Hockney's works are presently held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. Listings wanted.