Blondes have recently acquired David Hockney Illustrations for 14 poems by C.P.Cavafy. 1966. There are 12 etchings bound in book form from the A edition, signed and numbered by the artist 134/500. (The individual etching are not signed.) Published by Editions Alecto on handmade Barcham Green wove paper. The etchings bound as published in the cerise silk covered boards with black silk slip case. All in mint condition.
Published in 1966, it was these etchings , amongst the best produced in the 60s, that made Hockney's name. It was quite a daring venture for we must realise that homosexuality was still a criminal offence at this time. They were described by the eminent critic Edward Lucie Smith as "not only the best work I have seen by the artist, but probably the finest prints produced in England since the war."
Cavafy's homoerotic poems had been published in the 1920s, and he, like Walt Whitman (another gay poet), was a source of great inspiration to Hockney. They were not intended to be literal illustrations to the poems which had been set in Alexandria, but more an attempt to capture the both the spirit and furtive nature of homosexual love at that time. A great many of the albums have been broken up over the years, and the prints individually framed, so it's a great pleasure to be able to offer this set of 12 etchings in their original published form, with each etching accompanied on the facing page by Cavafy's poem.