David Hockney (b. 1937)
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more
David Hockney (b. 1937)

Alka Seltzer (S.A.C. 6; Tokyo 6)

Details
David Hockney (b. 1937)
Alka Seltzer (S.A.C. 6; Tokyo 6)
etching and aquatint, 1961, on Crisbrook handmade paper, signed and dated in pencil, numbered 4/15 (there were also six artist's proofs), published by Petersburg Press, London, 1969, the full sheet, deckle edges on two sides, minor light- and time staining, otherwise in good condition
P. 280 x 128 mm., S. 392 x 280 mm.
Special notice
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

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Lot Essay

This etching relates to the painting 'The Most Beautiful Boy in the World'. 'Doll boy', the central character identified by the intitials DB wears only a 'baby doll', a style of night-dress popularised by Carroll Baker in the film of that name. 'Doll Boy was a reference to Cliff Richard, who was very attractive, very sexy...I used to cut out photographs of him from newspapers and magazines and stick them around my little cubicle in the Royal College of Art, partly because other people used to stick up girl pin-ups, and I thought, I'm not going to do that, can't do that, and here's something just as sexy, and I stuck them up. He had a song in which the words were, 'She's a real live walking talking living doll', and he sang it rather sexily...He's referring to some girl, so I changed it to a boy.' (David Hockney by David Hockney, Thames & Hudson, London, 1976, p. 63). 'Doll Boy' is further identified in the painting as a fellow student at the Royal College of Art, Peter Crutch. The inclusion of an Alka-Seltzer logo, which gives the etchings its title, playfully suggests the effervescent effect of infatuation.

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