User:ArtDataArt/Project 1: Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C.P. Cavafy

Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C.P. Cavafy is a series of etchings by David Hockney in response to fourteen poems by Constantine P. Cavafy (1863–1933).

The set is also known as "Fourteen Poems", "Fourteen Poems by C P Cavafy", "The Cavafy Suite", "The Cavafy Series", "Cavafy Portfolio", and "Cavafy Book"; and is sometimes erroneously referred to as "Thirteen Poems".

Context
Drawn in 1966 and published in 1967 in London, just as parliament passed the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which finally decriminalised male homosexuality in England and Wales, this was Hockney's second major series of etchings after A Rake’s Progress (1961–3), and an important example of his pioneering representation of gay identity and sexuality in the early to mid-1960s. His artwork, intimate and personal rather than declamatory, broke taboos in a period when male homosexuality was illegal and such images were often deemed obscene.

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 and asserted the importance of the human rights principle of freedom of expression:

"Of course Cavafy’s poems are about gay love, and I was quite boldly using that subject then. I was aware that it was illegal, but I didn’t really think much about that at the time. I was living in a bohemian world, where we just did what we pleased. I wasn’t speaking for anybody else. I was defending my way of living. — David Hockney"

Poems
"'The fourteen selected for this book are, with the exception of Caesarian, poems of homosexual love: short, unrhymed, deeply felt but totally unsentimental. They appear in a new, hitherto unpublished translation by Nikos Stangos and Stephen Spender ... For several years Hockney has admired the work of Cavafy’' -- Prospectus"

Editions
Printmakers: Editions Alecto Limited — Proofed by Master printmaker Maurice Payne and printed by Danyon Black at the Alecto Studios, London.

Publisher: Editions Alecto Limited.

Binding, publisher's, by Tillotsons (Bolton) Limited, of magenta cotton silk, in black cotton silk slipcase, made by Galerie Der Spiegel, Cologne.

Edition A
Presented as a bound book of etchings with the supplementary signed etching Portrait of Cavafy II.

Supplementary etching inscribed in pencil l.r.: "David Hockney 66", stamped in ink on reverse l.l.: "Edition A ea 431".

300 copies: 250 numbered 1–250 + 50 Artist's Proofs.

Edition B
Presented as a bound book of 12 etchings, with title page, poems by C. P. Cavafy, and justification. Signed and numbered in pencil, published by Editions Alecto, London, on Crisbrook handmade paper, contained in a lilac cloth-covered boards and black slipcase.

overall: 47.3 by 33.5cm.; 18¾ by 13¼in.

Illustrated book: 35 folios with 12 etchings, letterpress text. (NGV)

250 copies: numbered 251–500.

Edition C
Presented as a portfolio.

50 copies numbered 1/75 – 50/75.

e.g. NGV:

inscribed in pencil l.l.: 19/75

inscribed in pencil l.r.: David Hockney '66

stamped in ink on reverse l.r.: ea 368

Edition D
Presented as a portfolio.

40 copies: 25 numbered 51/75 – 75/75 + 15 artist's proofs, with text on folders containing etchings.

Edition E
Presented as a portfolio.

30 copies: 25 numbered I–XXV + 5 artist's proofs on Vellum Royal paper, with supplementary etching.

Notes.

670 sets of etchings (620 with text) printed in Editions A–E, including 500 and 50 artist's proofs issued in book form (Editions A–B):

Book (42 p., [12] leaves of plates : ill. ; 47 cm.): 550 copies. (Edition A, B). Numbered and signed in pencil by the artist on the colophon.

Portfolio: 120 copies. (Edition C, D, E).

Loose: 50 copies.

Public collections
* A complete example assembled from various different numbers in the same edition.

** An incomplete example from various different numbers in the same edition.

Exhibitions including the complete series
David Hockney: Works from the Tate Collection, Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), 2019.

Exhibited in the National Art Library's touring exhibition Inspiration by Design: Word and Image from the National Art Library at the V&A, State Library Victoria, Melbourne. 20 March 2015 – 14 June 2015.

1972
4 prints from the series included in the exhibition 'Etchings Etc.', Museum of Modern Art. October 24, 1972 through January 2, 1973.

1973
'English Prints and Drawings from the Collection of the Brooklyn Museum'. October 03, 1973 through February 17, 1974.

1997
8 prints from the series included in the exhibition 'Selections from the Collection (1997)', Museum of Modern Art. May 30 – August 19.

2010
2010–2011, London, British Museum / BBC, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'

2010 September–December, British Museum, History of the World

2014
2014–2015 13 Dec – 15 Mar, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'

2015
2015 18 Apr – 28 Jun, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'

2015 14 Jul – 6 Sep, Kyushu National Museum, Dazaifu, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'

2015–2016 20 Sep – 11 Jan, Kobe City Museum, Kobe, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'

2016
2016 13 Feb – 18 Jun, National Museum of Western Australia, Perth, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'

2016–2017 08 Sep – 29 Jan, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'

Influence
1967 Film: Poems of C.P. Cavafy illustrated by David Hockney. Produced by MAYA Film Productions, Great Britain.

Cavafy Suite, Ahmed Morsi, 1990. (Set of 10 original prints by Ahmed Morsi and 7 translations into Arabic of Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy (1863–1933). With cover and in a box. Printing, etching and aquatint, 1990. Edition of 10, of which 3/10 is held by the British Museum).

A History of the World in 100 Objects (2010), was a joint project of BBC Radio 4 and the British Museum, consisting of a 100-part radio series written and presented by British Museum director Neil MacGregor. In the dull village was selected by MacGregor as object 97 and discuses its significance with David Hockney in a dedicated episode. Listen to the episode on the BBC website

Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, British Museum, London, 2013 pp.634-639.

Edition A
2022 — A complete set from Edition A (bound copy number 173/500, including Portrait of Cavafy II) sold at Christie's for £11,340 on an estimate of £4,000 to £6,000.

Edition E
2013 — A complete set, hors texte, with title page and justification, from Edition E (loose prints, each signed, dated '66' and annotated 'AP' in pencil (one of 5 artist's proofs, aside from the edition of 25) sold at Phillips for £27,500 on an estimate of £12,000 to £18,000.

Features

 * In the dull village | A History of the World in 100 Objects | BBC Sounds

Hockney

 * David Hockney | Official website
 * The David Hockney Foundation

Cavafy

 * The Cavafy archive | Onassis Foundation
 * Cavafy Museum | Hellenic Foundation for Culture
 * C. P. Cavafy | The Poetry Foundation
 * C. P. Cavafy | Academy of American Poets

Category:David Hockney Category:1966 works Category:1967 works Category:20th-century etchings Category:Constantine P. Cavafy Category:Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago Category:Prints and drawings in the British Museum Category:Collection of the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) Category:Collections of the National Gallery of Art