David Hockney: a portrait of the artist as a gay man

A Portrait Of The Artist As A Gay Man
British artist David Hockney stands before one of his paintings of the East Yorkshire landscape at The Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly, London, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, ahead of his exhibition called 'A Bigger Picture'. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan) EDITORIAL USE ONLY
British artist David Hockney stands before one of his paintings of the East Yorkshire landscape at The Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly, London, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, ahead of his exhibition called 'A Bigger Picture'. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

An exhibition celebrating the early work of David Hockney that explores the artist's sexuality and includes a painting of his art school pin-up, Cliff Richard, opens on Friday at Liverpool's Walker art gallery.

Almost 40 works have been brought together for the exhibition, which show what a powerful force the Bradford-born artist was from a young age. "There is such a lot of energy in his early paintings," said curator Ann Bukantas. "I find them quite exciting, and one of the things we wanted to do was take people back, away from the big, colourful trees and the iPad drawings to where Hockney started out."

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