Myself and My Heroes

Medium: Etching and aquatint on handmade wove paper
Year: 1961
Image: 26×50 cm (10 1/4 x 19 11/16 inches)
Sheet: 48.7 x 71 cm (19 1/8 x 27 7/8 inches)
Edition: Approximately 50 impressions
Printers: Ron Fuller and Peter Mathews at the Royal College of Art, London
Publisher: The Artist
Literature: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (4)

Signed and dated in pencil

 

While at the Royal College of Art in London, Hockney turned to etching for pragmatic reasons. Students were responsible for purchasing their own supplies and Hockney had quickly run out of money thanks to his enthusiasm for painting, so he took advantage of the college’s free printmaking materials. His first etching, Myself and My Heroes, embraces several of his passions at the time: the homoerotic poetry of Walt Whitman and the pacifism and vegetarianism of Mahatma Gandhi.

 

 

 

Auction Results

Property from the Petersburg Press Archives
Sotheby’s New-York: 15 July 2025
Estimated: USD 5,000 – 7,000
USD 10,160

DAVID HOCKNEY (b. 1937)
Myself and My Heroes (Scottish Arts Council 4; MCAT 4), 1961
Etching and aquatint on English handmade paper
Signed and inscribed David Hockney. Cancelled. (in the plate)
This impression is an archive cancellation proof aside from the numbered edition of approximately 50

Phillips London: 19 September 2024
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 13,970 / USD 18,147

DAVID HOCKNEY
Myself and My Heroes (S.A.C. 4, M.C.A.T. 4), 1961
Etching and aquatint, on J. Whatman paper, with full margins.
Sheet: 39.1 x 58 cm (15 3/8 x 22 7/8 inches)
Signed and dated in pencil, a proof aside from the edition of approximately 50

Bonhams London: 27 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 10,000
GBP 15,360 / USD 19,555
DAVID HOCKNEY (born 1937)
Myself and my Heroes (M.C.A. Tokyo 4), 1961
Etching and aquatint on handmade wove paper
Signed and dated in pencil, from the edition of approximately 50 impressions
Sotheby’s London: 16 September 2020
Estimated: GBP 4,000 – 6,000
GBP 17,640 / USD 22,900

DAVID HOCKNEY (b. 1937)
MYSELF AND MY HEROES (S.A.C., MCA TOKYO 4), 1961
Etching and aquatint om wove paper
Signed in pencil, dated, dedicated ‘To Anne from David xxx‘
From the edition of approximately 50