David Hockney’s Two Boys Aged 23 or 24: sensuality and history
The cultural icon captures close intimacy between his friends to illustrate CP Cavafy’s poem
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.
THE GUARDIAN
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