The Sunday Preview: Liverpool shows off Bradford's finest

IN THE Sixties David Hockney's prices went so high so quickly that the Tate didn't manage to buy some of his most characteristic work. Now it is catching up, and this show at the Tate Gallery Liverpool includes recent purchases of his prints - always the most charming and convincing part of Hockney's production - as well as material borrowed from other galleries, including The First Marriage (above) of 1962, usually held at the Tate Gallery London. In all, a mini- retrospective, with emphasis on poetry, photography and Picasso. Look out for the etchings in illustration of the poems of C P Cavafy, made in 1966, the Cubist prints from the Eighties and an interesting display of Hockney's photographic sources. But we shouldn't be over-serious about his career: from Bradford to London to Los Angeles and back again, he's the tops in international chic. Tate Gallery Liverpool, 051-709 0507, from Wed to Feb 1994. (Photograph omitted)