Although commonly grouped with the Pop artists who emerged in Britain in the 1960s, David Hockney was less influenced in his image making by mass media, advertising and the consumer society than by his private life (his imagery often focuses on friends and familiar places), traditional literature and gay culture. The Alexandria-born Greek Cavafy, whom he discovered in 1960, was one of his favourite poets. In 1966 Hockney travelled to Beirut in search of the kind of atmosphere he imagined Alexandria would have had at the time when Cavafy was writing there. The images which he ultimately made to illustrate a selection of Cavafy's poems are mostly of young male couples which could have been made in many places apart from Egypt in the early 20th century. It is their simplicity and frankness which reflect the quality of Cavafy's writing which appealed to Hockney. Here, however, he sets a more specific scene, with the tobacco shop acting as the site for sexual or erotic encounter.


Although commonly grouped with the Pop artists who emerged in Britain in the 1960s, David Hockney was less influenced in his image making by mass media, advertising and the consumer society than by his private life (his imagery often focuses on friends and familiar places), traditional literature and gay culture. The Alexandria-born Greek Cavafy, whom he discovered in 1960, was one of his favourite poets. In 1966 Hockney travelled to Beirut in search of the kind of atmosphere he imagined Alexandria would have had at the time when Cavafy was writing there. However the illustrations which he ultimately made are almost (but not quite) all of young male couples which might have been made in many places apart from Egypt in the early 20th century. Although there has been a tradition of homo-erotic art, it has often been closeted. Hockney’s frank yet sensitive depictions of homosexual themes seem to have a wider public appeal.