Christopher Isherwood And Don Bachardy
Signed Print

While some of the prints in the 1976 Friends series make use of the medium of lithography to achieve a softer, more painterly effect, Christopher Isherwood And Don Bachardy retains a more sketchy line, recalling Hockney’s earlier etchings. Here we find the great writer and his partner sitting in matching rattan armchairs behind a coffee table upon which lays an unusual still life consisting of a lemon squeezer and shucked cob of corn. The corn kernels recall the texture of the armchairs which in turn is echoed in the shutters behind the figures. Hockney had of course painted the couple’s portrait, in almost the exact same triangular composition, in 1968. While that work showed the sitters fully clothed, however, in this work they are wearing dressing gowns, adding an air of intimacy to this scene and to their relationship. While homosexuality was no longer illegal in most states and countries by 1976, it was still unusual to come across open celebrations of gay love in contemporary art. As with his earlier series Illustrations For Fourteen Poems By C.P. Cavafy here the homoeroticism is laid bare as if defiantly challenging conservative viewers to take issue with it.