Lithograph, 1980
Signed Print Edition of 34
H 66cm x W 88cm
As with the other Lithograph Of Water and Pool II-B here Hockney presents us with a scene of a diving board stretching out over an empty pool. As the title suggests this is more a study of water than a pool scene and yet the board adds an important element of contrast in its solidity, to the transparency and ineffability of the water below it. Here Hockney adds a dark blue wash to the water, as in his other representations of pools, along with the squiggly lines which add movement and dynamism to the body of water, and which he would eventually make a permanent feature of his own pool by painting them directly onto its bottom in waterproof paint. Again the pool tiles are still visible as the water does not become a solid mass as in perhaps Hockney’s most famous pool, A Bigger Splash. Hockney moved to LA in 1964, in search of the sharp light and shadows he had seen in Hollywood movies as a student. Comparing the move to ‘Van Gogh going to Arles’, Hockney sought to escape what he saw as the greyness of post-war England and immediately fell in love with LA’s many swimming pools.