David Hockney painted domestic gay life while it was illegal
Decades before full decriminalization, the British artist used his canvases to normalize same-sex affection through intimate scenes of showering and domesticity.
In 1963, the British artist David Hockney painted Domestic Scene, Los Angeles, a work depicting one man washing another man's back in a shower. At the time the piece was created, homosexual acts between men were entirely illegal in the United Kingdom. While many contemporary viewers see his vibrant pool and home scenes as simple, aesthetic celebrations of California life, they began as radical acts of visibility.
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