Homage To Michelangelo

This signed print, entitled Homage To Michelangelo (1975), is by much-loved British artist David Hockney. Created using etching and aquatint printmaking techniques, it was released in an edition of 200 and belongs to the artist’s  Influences series. It depicts two expressionless women as they walk towards one another, clutching a newspaper and a handbag, respectively. Behind the women, studies of works by Italian High Renaissance artist, Michelangelo, have been gesturally inscribed into an un-inked area resembling a wall, which engenders a stark light-dark contrast with the pair’s drab clothes. Literary references permeate the print, with the words ‘in the room’ and ‘THE WOMEN come and go talking of Michelangelo’ appearing on the wall in a coded reference to T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’. The cross-hatched ground upon which the two women walk evokes the rigid forms of Hockney’s set designs for a 1975 showing of The Rake’s Progress, as seen in his poster print,  An Exhibit Of Costumes (1975). This print was produced in order to feature in the portfolio Omaggio a Michelangelo, published in 1975 to mark what would be Michelangelo’s 500th birthday, and featuring artworks from the likes of André Masson, Henry Moore and Eduardo Paolozzi. A copy of the print has hung on the Second Floor of the British Library in London for many years.