Representations of Homosexualities in the Works of David Hockney
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TEXTUAL CUES, VISUAL FICTIONS: REPRESENTATIONS OF HOMOSEXUALITIES IN THE WORKS OF DAVID HOCKNEY by EMILY PORTER-SALMON A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History of Art School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham June 2011 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis is concerned with representations of homosexual themes and subjects in the works of David Hockney (b. 1937). A male, homosexual British artist, Hockney came of age during a period in which homosexual acts between males remained criminalised in both Britain and the United States. Openly homosexual since the early 1960s, Hockney began to produce images concerned with homosexual themes during his Royal College of Art student years. This thesis explores Hockney‟s discovery of texts, languages, images and publications relating to homosexuality from the 1960s onwards, and his personal and creative responses to these sources. The concept of a homosexual creative „canon‟ existed amongst homosexual men of this period, albeit in an unofficial capacity; this wider context of historical creative and cultural precedent within homosexual subcultures has not previously been the subject of sustained critical engagement in relation to Hockney. In addition to the artist‟s works dealing with homosexual themes produced prior to the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain in 1967, this thesis looks beyond that period, and also considers Hockney‟s personal self-fashioning and media engagements. Far from an anomalous maverick, Hockney and his works are shown to fit within a continuum of homosexual creative and cultural endeavour. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Shearer West, for all her assistance, advice and support. She has sacrificed many weekends over the course of the past three and a half years to read my work and to fit in my supervisions, and without her, there simply would be no thesis. I should also thank her husband, Nick Davidson, and daughter, Ellie, for putting up with this situation! There can be few people who are fortunate enough in life to meet their idols, but I have been one of them. I have found David Hockney and his work fascinating ever since I wrote my A- level art study on him as a teenager, and ten years later, I am handing in a PhD thesis that, in many ways, is a continuation of the intellectual concerns that began back then. It is fair to say that the assistance and insight that Mr Hockney personally has offered over the course of this research project has been invaluable, and I would like to offer him my heartfelt gratitude. Thanks are also due to John Fitzherbert, without whom there would have been no meeting, and possibly no interview transcript without the spare batteries he provided for my recorder. I would also like to thank the staff, in particular George Snyder, at the Hockney studio in Los Angeles for their help, access and forbearance. I have received assistance from staff at a number of institutions, both in Britain and the United States, over the course of this research project. Particular thanks are due to Sally McKay at the Getty Research Institute Research Library, and the staff at the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives in Los Angeles, California. I am also indebted to the staffs of the British Library, Hyman Kreitman Research Centre, Birmingham Central Library and the libraries of the University of Birmingham. I offer thanks to the staff of the History of Art department at the University of Birmingham, in particular for the award of the Haywood Scholarship which in part helped me to fund my research. Dr Hera Cook helped orient my research in initially unfamiliar territory, and I would also like thank Dr Camilla Smith for her help and support, especially for her insightful comments on my writing which were offered at very short notice. As my research has been largely self-funded, it has taken place against a sometimes hectic background of numerous part-time jobs. Thanks are due to my colleagues in the art departments of King Edward‟s School and King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham, notably Pat Brace, Elizabeth Edwards, Ron Gardiner, Lynn Seamark and Bradley Spencer – thank you for the opportunities you provided, and for your patience. Thanks also to Sue and John Hemingway, who are familiar with the doctoral research process, and who arranged several sales and commissions for me over the course of this project that kept me financially afloat! I have received a great deal of support and encouragement from all four of my parents – Caroline Gordon, Andrew Porter, May Porter and Mike Salmon – and I am very grateful to each of them, not least for their patience over the years. My uncle, Ch‟ng Chin Yeow, has been an inspiration for this project, while my fellow PhD student, Katrin Seyler, has listened patiently to my disgruntlements over the course of the writing process, and has provided much-needed cake. Rebecca Kirmani offered a kind ear and a place to stay when I presented some of this research at a conference in Oxford, and should probably be credited with getting me through my undergraduate years. Finally, this thesis is dedicated to three of my favourite people – Eleanor Porter, Nicholas Porter, and James McClelland. CONTENTS Page 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. A Review of Scholarship to Date .................................................................................. 8 1.2. David Hockney: His Career to Date and Encounters with Homosexual Themes and Sources .............................................................................. 19 1.3. The Concept of „Homosexuality‟ and its Relation to the Law: A Brief Overview ........................................................................................................ 24 1.4. Approaches, Methods and Resources ......................................................................... 31 1.5 Thesis Structure .......................................................................................................... 35 2. Chapter One. Hiding in Plain Sight: Homosexualities, Language, and Subterfuge in the Early Works of David Hockney ..................................................... 42 2.1 Homosexual Panic, Cultures of Concealment and Explorations of Identity through Language ...................................................................................... 43 2.2 „You and I are outlaws‟: Outsider Imagery, Gay Spaces and Artistic Alibis ........... 58 2.3 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 80 3. Chapter Two. Truths in Fiction: Hockney and the Significance of Literature in Homosexual Identity Formation ........................................................... 83 3.1 Lyrical Encounters: Poetic Quotation and Appropriation in Hockney‟s works of the 1960s ............................................................................... 86 3.2 Literatures and Lifestyles: Towards a View of a Homosexual Creative Canon ....... 104 3.3 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 115 4. Chapter Three. „To a Happier Year‟: Visual Quotation, Domesticity and Hockney‟s Explorations of the United States ........................................................... 118 4.1 A Yorkshireman in New York: A Rake‟s Progress, Self-Fashioning and the Media ................................................................................. 122 4.2 Mad About the Boy: Physique Photography, Gender Symmetries and Homosexual Domesticities ............................................................. 145 4.3 Life Imitates Art Imitates Life: Hockney, Relationships and the Gay Community in Los Angeles in the 1960s ............................................. 174 4.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 187 5. Chapter Four. The Long View: Public (Re)Conceptions of Hockney from the 1970s to the Present .................................................................................... 191 5.1 A Bigger Splash on Film: Fantasy, Reality and Public Perceptions ....................... 195 5.2 Mainstream Media Encounters, Boyishness and Hockney as (Artistic) Celebrity ............................................................................................... 211 5.3 „There‟s All Types of Gay‟: „Lifestyle‟, Gay Movements and Gay Communities ............................................................................................... 231 5.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 262 6. Conclusion ...............................................................................................................