Swimming Pools with David Hockney

Curated Mid-Century Modern Home Listings from Across the Country📍

Apr 08, 2024

David Hockney is among the most famous and influential living painters. The fame doesn’t seem to matter much to the 86 year old though. Hockney still feels most content while painting. “When I’m in the studio, I feel like I’m 30,” he quipped in a Los Angeles County Museum of Art interview. “But when I leave it, I know I’m 80.”

David Hockney, a portrait of the portrait artist at 80: 'I'm still curious' - Los Angeles Times — Hockney in 2018. Photographed by Luis Sinco.

Hockney was born in Bradford, England July 9th, 1937. He studied at the Bradford School of Art from 1953 to 1958, followed by the Royal College of Art in London. During this time, he developed his signature style, characterized by bold lines, vibrant colors, and a focus on everyday subjects. While Hockney is most often associated with Pop Art, his artistic influences are diverse. He has acknowledged the inspiration of Old Masters and their use of optics in his work. Hockney also developed skills across other mediums including stage design, photography, and printmaking. All of which would play important roles in most defining works.

Los Angeles became a significant source of inspiration for Hockney after his first visit in 1963. When asked why he came to California, Hockney said “I came to Los Angeles for two reasons. The first was a photo by Julius Shulman of Case Study House #21, and the other was AMG’s Physique Pictorial.” The artist would go on to call the Hollywood Hills and Malibu home for the coming decades, with intermittent trips back to Europe. The city's bright sunlight, swimming pools, and palm trees became recurring motifs in his paintings and prints. On the theme, Hockney said “I realized that a swimming pool in England would have been a luxury, whereas here they are not.” Pool-centric paintings like a A Bigger Splash and Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) are now quintessential L.A. works.

In 2018, Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1972) sold at Christie’s for a whopping $80 million at the hammer, or $90.3 million with fees. The work sold for exactly its on-request estimate after just nine minutes of open bidding. The painting was a bit of serendipitous creation, inspired by two different photographs discarded on the artist’s studio floor.

Today, Hockney’s work remains as adored as ever, while the octogenarian continues to create. Always one to try new things, Hockney has embraced the iPad in recent years to create a plethora of new vibrant and detailed works.

“Most artists work all the time, they do actually, especially good artists, they work all the time, what else is there to do? I mean you do.”
David Hockney