Jump, 1960

About the Work

This early work by Hockney is filled with iconographic and stylistic experiments in search of a form of expression for transferring the theme of homosexuality into painting. The title emphasises the action of the visibly rendered jump, which depicts the daringness of an outing. The truncated series of letters ‘Quee’ allows several possibilities of completion. On the one hand, ‘Queen’ can be read; but on the other, ‘Queer’ is also possible. The latter is to be understood as an autobiographical allusion by the artist, one which is enhanced by his initials D. H. as a consequence of the numbering of the alphabetic sequence 4.8 (D=4; H=8).