Early Hockney

DAVID HOCKNEY: THE COMPLETE EARLY ETCHINGS 1961-64
At Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert

“I started doing graphic work in 1961 because I’d run out of money and I couldn’t buy any paint, and in the graphic department they gave you the materials for free. So I started etching, and the first I did was Myself and My Heroes. My heroes were Walt Whitman and Gandhi. There was a little quote from each of them, but for myself I couldn’t find anything – I hadn’t made any quotes – so it just said, ‘I am twenty-three years old and wear glasses,’ the only interesting thing I could think to say about myself.”
-- David Hockney, from David Hockney by David Hockney, 1976 (Thames & Hudson)