Poolside

This signed photographic print by British artist David Hockney was first issued in a limited edition of 25 in 1970: a year which saw the young artist’s career greatly celebrated in the form of a retrospective exhibition held at London’s Whitechapel Gallery. Like the 1970 retrospective, which ran from April to May in London before going on to tour various locations around the world, this signed print is testament to the importance of photography to Hockney’s artistic œuvre. In it, we can see three deck chairs – each of which recall the etching, Mo Asleep, produced the following year – positioned at the poolside. The scene’s bright colours and palm trees evoke California: one of Hockney’s most-loved subjects, and a location he first moved to from cold, grey and expensive postwar London in 1964. Flanked by palm trees, in the rear of the composition we can see the bold and rigid forms of an art nouveau style building, which presumably interested Hockney due to its formal clarity and the way it casts shadow. A photographic snapshot of a leisurely scene of the kind that fascinated Hockney during the 1970s in particular, it recalls other prints in the Photographs collection, such as John St Clair Swimming (1972).