For The OZ Obscenity Fund
For The OZ Obscenity Fund
Signed Print
David Hockney
£1,800-£2,700
$3,600-$5,500 Value Indicator
$3,300-$5,000 Value Indicator
¥17,000-¥25,000 Value Indicator
€2,050-€3,100 Value Indicator
$19,000-$28,000 Value Indicator
¥370,000-¥560,000 Value Indicator
$2,400-$3,600 Value Indicator
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62 x 82cm, Edition of 30, Lithograph
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Meaning & Analysis
Throughout his fifty-year career, David Hockney has consistently returned to the theme of the male body in his works. By picturing male nudity in scenes of swimming, showering, or washing up, the artist challenged the underrepresentation of same-sex affection in art and popular culture. In this 1971 lithograph printed for the OZ Obscenity Fund, Hockney portrays the OZ magazine editors, Richard Neville, Jim Anderson, and Felix Dennis, either fully naked or undressed from the waist down. The idea behind this bold image was to celebrate the innocence of the naked body against the stigma of an unfair public accusation.
Originally from Australia, the OZ magazine became an important part of the UK counterculture when it launched in London in 1967. After a few years of the magazine’s presence within the city’s cultural scene, a group of young people aged between 14 and 18 was selected to edit the School Kids issue, which led to a series of articles revolving around the themes of education, sexual freedom, drug use and corporal punishment. As a result, the magazine was raided by the Obscene Publications Squad and its three editors were accused of conspiring to 'debauch and corrupt the morals of young children’. To render the male body subtle and innocent, Hockney uses crisp linear outlines against a plain, almost entirely muted background, similarly to his earlier works, such as Nude Male (1966) and Peter (1969). 30 of the prints for the OZ Obscenity Fund were auctioned to raise money and public awareness about the trial.