'In the Dull Village', David Hockney

Artwork details

Artist

David Hockney (born 1937)

Title

In the Dull Village

From Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C.P. Cavafy

Date 1966

MediumEtching and aquatint on paper

Dimensionsimage: 345 x 223 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Purchased 1992

Reference

P77570

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Summary

This is one of thirteen etchings for Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C.P. Cavafy, (Tate Gallery P77563-77575). Hockney's first major series of etchings since A Rake's Progress (1961-3), it was conceived almost entirely in terms of line, and contained some of the artist's most accomplished line drawings to that date. He had made earlier references to the writings of the pre-war Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, 1961 (Tate Gallery P11377), contains a quotation from the last two lines of the poem 'The Mirror in the Hall', and A Grand Procession of Dignitaries in the Semi-Egyptian Style, 1961 (private collection) was inspired by the poem 'Waiting for the Barbarians'. But this was Hockney's first major statement inspired by the poet. Although he originally intended to illustrate a far more ambitious range of poems, this proved impractical and he therefore decided only to include those on the subject of homosexual love. A new translation was produced by the poets Stephen Spender and Nikos Stangos, and published with the etchings in 1967… (read more)