{"id":1101,"date":"2022-06-28T15:51:38","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T13:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hockney2022.ch\/1001-nacht\/"},"modified":"2022-08-03T14:25:34","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T12:25:34","slug":"1001-nacht","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.hockney2022.ch\/en\/hockney\/1001-nacht\/","title":{"rendered":"1001 Nights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Longing for the Orient\n<\/h2>\n\n
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When he was young, David Hockney read poems by the Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy and was touched by his poetic expression of homoeroticism.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Constantine P. Cavafy in Alexandria, photographer unknown, C.P. Cavafy Archives – Onassis Foundation, source: Wikipedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Constantine P. Cavafy (1863\u20131933) was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and spent most of his life there. The Greek poet describes the bustling atmosphere of that big city and, above all, the fleeting glances and encounters between homosexuals, who had to conceal their sexual leanings. In Cavafy\u2019s poems the figures are spurred on by longing: in the tavern, in the tobacco shop, on the street or in bed. Their constant companions are a bad conscience about doing something forbidden and the fear of being caught.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Constantine P. Cavafy, Their Beginning<\/em><\/strong>, 1920\u20131930<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheir illicit pleasure has been fulfilled.
They get up and dress quickly, without a word.
They come out of the house separately, furtively;
and as they move off down the street a bit unsettled,
it seems they sense that something about them betrays
what kind of bed they\u2019ve just been lying on.
But what profit for the life of the artist:
tomorrow, the day after, or years later, he\u2019ll give voice
to the strong lines that had their beginning here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Constantine P. Cavafy’s manuscript of the poem Their Beginning<\/em>, \u00a9 2016-2018 Cavafy Archive, Onassis Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

On Cavafy\u2019s Trail in Alexandria<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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David Hockney, The Beginning <\/em>from the series Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C.P. Cavafy<\/em>, 1966\u20131967, Etching and aquatint on paper, 34.5 \u00d7 22.3 cm, Tate: Purchased 1992, \u00a9 David Hockney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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David Hockney engaged intensely with his homosexuality in the 1960s. He discovered Cavafy\u2019s poetry and how it deals with homosexual love and so he traveled to Alexandria, which the poet describes as being so sensual and cosmopolitan. But Hockney returned from his trip disillusioned. The city did not have the same appeal in reality as it had in Hockney\u2019s imagination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later David Hockney travelled to Beirut, where he found the atmosphere of Cavafy\u2019s poems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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