Pool Made With Paper And Blue Ink For Book
Signed Print

Pool Made With Paper And Blue Ink For Book (1980) is a signed lithograph print by David Hockney representing a staple theme within his body of work: the swimming pool. In this print, the water occupies almost the entire surface of the image, exhibiting simplicity of composition coupled with precise details and crisp linear outlines. Because Hockney experiments with diverse shades of the blue colour, the representation of water becomes complex and multidimensional. A square tile pattern pokes through the surface, revealing the depth of the swimming pool as well as the lustre surface of its bottom. Here, like in so many of his early swimming pool paintings, Hockney reveals his fascination with ‘the language of ripples and splashes’, to use the artist’s own phrase. Covering the surface of the water is a mass of free-flowing, dark-blue curved lines that convey a sense calm movement against the static surroundings. The artist commented in the context of his favourite theme: “It is a formal problem to represent water, to describe water, because it can be anything. It can be any colour, it’s movable, and it has no set visual description.”