David Hockney, Swimming Pools

David Hockney and Swimming Pools are practically synonymous. Hockney’s move to Los Angeles in 1964 transformed both his palette and his subject matter. Leaving behind what he saw as the greyness of post-war England, he found the sharp light, modernist architecture and turquoise swimming pools of California – imagery that would become inseparable from his work.

While A Bigger Splash remains one of Hockney’s most famous paintings, his fascination with swimming pools extended well beyond the canvas. Through printmaking, water became a space for experimentation. Its transparency, movement and constantly changing surface presented a problem that Hockney could solve differently with every work.

Prints including Afternoon Swimming, Lithograph of Water Made of Lines and My Pool And Terrace show just how varied those solutions became, from loose curves and washes of blue to intricate patterns of undulating lines. They also mark a striking departure from the largely monochromatic etchings of his earlier London years, as the colour and light of California increasingly entered his printmaking.

In this video, we explore how the swimming pool became one of Hockney’s defining motifs, and a subject through which he could continually rethink light, space, perspective and the challenge of representing water.