Travelling exhibition dedicated to graphic work by David Hockney (1937) organised by Petersburg Press and designed to visit several museums and European institutions.
The initiative to hold the exhibition in Portugal was taken by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG) Fine Arts Department in cooperation with the Exhibitions and Museography Department and sponsored by the British Council.
In an internal memo dated April 1977, the Fine Arts Department justified the interest in holding the exhibition in the following terms:
"The importance David Hockney gained in English art in the 1960s (...) later spread with an individual character marked by an original search involving the recreation of certain constant values of figurative painting. (...) This is why we find it so pertinent to present this set of 120 drawings and prints by Hockney, in the first exhibition proposed to the Foundation; these pieces allow the artist's work as a draughtsman and engraver to be viewed chronologically, and include some of the most important series he has made, such as Rake's Progress (1961-1963), Hollywood Collection (1965), Illustrations for fourteen poems from C. P. Cavafy (1966), Six fairy tales from the brothers Grimm (1969) and Weather Series (1973)" (Note by the Fine Arts Department, 21 Apr. 1977, pp. 1-2, Gulbenkian Archives, SBA 15507).
The event enabled the Portuguese public to view 122 pieces by the renowned English painter, among very original drawings and prints. The excellent quality of Hockney's work was proven in these examples dating from 1961-1976, predominantly portraits, but including some landscapes, still lifes and themes linked to a dream-like imagination and references to the literary world.
The works presented also included two drawings belonging to the FCG collection: Pigs escaping from a hot dog machine, 1961, (inv. no. DE22) and Figure in Helmet and cloak, 1963, (inv. no. DE21), which highlight the characteristic linearity of his strokes. As the artist himself has said: "Making two or three linear drawings, which have to be done in one go, is an enormous effort. (...) It's exciting to do a linear drawing but I think it's the hardest thing there is" (David Hockney. Gravura e Desenho, 1977).
The exhibition catalogue is a fundamental accessory for the event since, as well as including biographic information and well-executed reproductions of pieces, it presents an analysis of Hockney's work, intersecting interpretation of the pieces exhibited with important literary notes capable of expanding the meaning of his works. The catalogue included the publication of some poems by Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933), with an important essay by Stephen Spender (1909-1995) and excerpts from an interview with Hockney by Nikos Stangos (1936) and Pierre Restany (1930-2003).
In an article on the exhibition for the FCG's journal, Colóquio. Artes, the painter Fernando de Azevedo (1923-2002) includes David Hockney in the continuation of great painters who have particularly devoted themselves to drawing and whose originality revolutionised 20th-century art, such as Matisse (1869-1954) or Picasso (1881-1973). He also underlines the importance of Hockney and the works exhibited in the following words: "The codes of Pop Art are clearly visible and come from the invention thereof, which is also Hockney's responsibility, in the context of the English generation to which he belongs" (Azevedo, Colóquio. Artes, Dec. 1977, p. 92).
Within the context of the exhibition, two documentaries on David Hockney's work were also shown, loaned by the British Council for the purpose.