Swimming pools, landscapes and portraits by David Hockney
No one captured pools and the California sun like David Hockney did in his paintings. After the Kunstmuseum in Lucerne, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo is now showing a retrospective of his work
Swimming pool, lake or both?
Preferences are divided: For some, a bathing lake is the symbol of summer retreat. For others, it is a pool whose water surface glistens auspiciously in the sun, is manageable, and with clear water holds no surprises of plants and animals.
Until recently at the Kunstmuseum Luzern and from July 15, 2023 to November 5, 2023 in Tokyo, the work of the English painter David Hockney can be seen.
David Hockney, Interior with Blue Terrace and Garden, 2017 Acrylic on canvas, 121.9 × 243.8 cm
David Hockney, Photo: Richard Schmidt
More than swimming pools
The Pool paintings have made him famous and one of the most important contemporary artists, ranked among the top 100 artists worldwide and among the top 10 in England. Almost everyone knows his only seemingly simple pictures of California pools, which were often copied.
Standing in front of one of David Hockney’s original pool paintings, one recognizes the sophisticated play of color and form that irresistibly captures the promise of summer on canvas.
In California, there were 42,123 swimming pools in Los Angeles alone between Hollywood Hills and San Pedro (as of March 2022). The original can be found there on every corner. David Hockney lives and works in California. His paintings have already been shown in 533 exhibitions in the USA alone(source Artfacts).
David Hockney paints on a color proof of Caribbean Team Time from the series Moving Focus, Tyler Graphics Ltd. artist’s studio, Bedford Village, New York, 1985
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Photo: Kenneth Tyler, Donation Kenneth Tyler 2002
Bradford, the town in West Yorkshire, England, where David Hockney was born in 1937, is home to the Hockney Foundation, established by the artist, which houses more than 9,000 of his works.
From July 15, 2023 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo
Exhibition view David Hockney, Moving Focus, Museum of Art Lucerne, 2022, Photo: Marc Latzel
After Lucerne last year, the range and continuous development of the artist can now be seen in Japan: The outstanding portraits, the impressive landscape paintings and a series of works that David Hockney has produced (with great enthusiasm for the technique) on the iPad .
Opera fans also know David Hockney as a designer of stage sets. Music enthusiast David Hockney, here’s his Spotify list, has designed the sets for several operas.
At the opera house in Glyndebourne, his stage design for Igor Stravinsky’s opera The Rake’s Progress was an important part of the production. You can see the set here and enjoy it along with the wonderful aria “Gently little boat”.
Exhibition view David Hockney, Moving Focus, Museum of Art Lucerne, 2022, Photo: Marc Latzel
The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo will also be showing the large-format work “A Year in Normandie (202-2021)”, which was created on the iPad and can be admired in the format 100 x 9000 cm.
Cover picture: David Hockney, California Copied from 1965 Painting in 1987, Acrylic on canvas, 152.1 × 182.6 cm
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Donation of the artist, © David Hockney
