This itinerant exhibition, widely circulated internationally (Portugal, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan), presented the photographic assemblies produced by the British artist David Hockney (1937). The exhibition was promoted and organized by the British Council with the support of the Exhibition and Museography Department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG). . This initiative allowed the Portuguese public to acknowledge a different and almost unknown facet of this contemporary British artist. The exhibition was held first at the Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis, Porto, in May 1985, and later, in November of the same year, at the FCG.

This was not the first time that David Hockney's work was shown in the FCG galleries. The first presentation dates back to 1977 to the exhibition titled David Hockney. Gravura e Desenho [David Hockney. Engraving and Drawing], followed by The Rake's Progress exhibition, in 1984, dedicated to  the presentation of two satirical cycles with works by Hockney and William Hogarth (1697-1764).

Through this event, the FCG had the dual intention of promoting the contemporary international artistic values and of bringing the central nuclei of its modern collection, as in this specific case that of British Art, closer to the exhibition program of the institution. . In the introduction of the catalogue, José Sommer Ribeiro, Director of the Modern Art Centre (CAM), made this intention explicit: "The exhibition of David Hockney, photographer, will allow the public to know another facet of this great contemporary artist, and his work has been of interest to this Foundation for a long time, some of his drawings and an oil painting are included in the CAM collection (…) and in 1977 the FCG presented (...) a great exhibition of his drawings.” (David Hockney. Fotógrafo, 1985)

A set of 101 large photographic assemblies, all produced by the artist between the years of 1968 and 1984, using album pages, polaroids and collages, was presented at the Main Building Temporary Exhibition Gallery (Lower Ground Floor) at the FCG.  The exhibition was built around these three typologies:

"The first part (...) is a selection of the Hockney albums. The albums are large (18 x 22.5 inches), contain six or eight standard size photographs (...) comprise some 20 000 photographs (...). They reproduce visits, weddings, nativities, trips, like most albums", says Mark Haworth-Booth in the introductory text of the exhibition catalogue (David Hockney. Fotógrafo, pp. 7-8).

The second section featured large compositions and juxtapositions of polaroids, conveying the notion of continuity of movements and perspectives, in a kind of "drawing with the cameras", exhibition title of the first presentation of these works.

The third section was described by the curator of the Victoria & Albert Museum at the time, Mark Haworth-Booth, in his essay for the catalogue, as: "The photo-collages following the series of polaroids were made with the little Pentax or with a Nikon, with a lens of about 100 mm, created and processed in the nearest photographic laboratory, reunited and finally placed in their final position.” (ibid., p.10)

In addition to both Mark Haworth-Booth and Luis Revenga essays and to the many colored and black and white reproductions of the works on display, the catalogue of the exhibition includes a statement by David Hockney himself, in which the artist addresses his interpretation of the photographic practice (David Hockney. Fotógrafo, pp.13-20).

The author was so interested in emphasizing “that photography excludes more than it reveals and that it is built upon shapes that are contrary to natural vision”, that he decided, with his technical team, that the quality of the graphic support materials, such as posters, should be provided directly by them, so as not to distort his intentions (ibid., p. 7). However, despite giving rigorous indications to this effect, the artist would eventually authorize the edition of the poster by the technical services of the FCG.

The archive documentation gathered some news published on the national written press. The exhibition did not accomplished, however, the impact on the media that would be expected from such an event. This fact reflects, perhaps, the lingering estrangement of the Portuguese visual culture towards the contemporary international values. Despite this, Alexandre Melo’s article, indicated that a new generation of art critics was attentive to the international artistic context (Melo, JL. Jornal de Letras, Artes e Ideias, 19 nov.1985).