Focus on The Blue Guitar and explore the Context.
In 1976 Henry Geldzahler introduced Hockney to Wallace Stevens' 1937 poem, The Man with the Blue Guitar, which used Picasso's Blue period painting The Old Guitarist (1903–04) as its central theme. Hockney produced a number of drawings in response to the poem, which highlights the problem of the imagination's role in interpreting reality, and produced a set of coloured etchings using the method devised by Aldo Crommelynck for Picasso to make colour prints. Hockney said his illustrations "like the poem, they are about transformations within art as well as the relation between reality and the imagination, so these are pictures within pictures and different styles of representation juxtaposed and reflected and dissolved within the same frame. Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) began writing poetry in his 40s, and, while never a popular poet, is counted one of North America's most influential poets of the 20th century."
"I read Wallace Steven's poem in the summer of 1976. The etchings themselves were not conceived as literal illustrations of the poem but as an interpretation of its themes in visual terms. Like the poem, they are about transformations within art as well as the relation between reality and the imagination, so these are pictures and different styles of representation juxtaposed and reflected and dissolved within the same frame." — David Hockney
(Artist's statement on dust-jacket of the accompanying catalogue documenting the publication of The Blue Guitar suite of etchings).
Artist's statement etchings David Hockney The Man with the Blue Guitar Wallace Stevens poetry The Old Guitarist Blue period Henry Geldzahler Picasso Aldo Crommelynck