David Hockney

 

 

 

 

Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)
1971 (110 Kb); Acrylic on canvas,
214 x 304.8 cm (84 x 120 in);
Collection David Geffen


Technically,
it is true to say that the Pop movement started with Richard Hamilton and David Hockney in England.

Hockney's early work made superb use of the popular magazine-style images on which much of Pop Art is based.

However, when Hockney moved to California in the 1960s,
he responded with such artistic depth to the sea, sun, sky, young men, and luxury that
his art took on a wholly new, increasingly naturalistic dimension.

Though one might consider A Bigger Splash a simplistic rather than a simplified view of the world,
it nevertheless creates a delightful interplay between the stolid pink verticals of a Los Angeles setting
and the exuberance of spray as the unseen diver enters the pool.

There is no visible human presence here, just that lonely, empty chair and a bare, almost frozen world.

Yet that wild white splash can only come from another human,
and a great deal of Hockney's psyche is involved in the mix of lucidity and confusion of this picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 http://www.hockneypictures.com