Swimming Pools, Landscapes, and Portraits by David Hockney
No one captured swimming pools and the California sun as well as David Hockney did in his paintings. Following the Kunstmuseum in Lucerne, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo is now presenting a retrospective of his work
Swimming pool, lake, or both?
Opinions are divided: For some, a swimming lake is the epitome of a summer getaway. For others, it’s a pool whose water glistens invitingly in the sun, is easy to survey, and, with its clear water, holds no surprises in terms of plants or animals.
Until recently on view at the Kunstmuseum Luzern, and from July 15, 2023, through November 5, 2023, in Tokyo, the work of English painter David Hockney is on display.
David Hockney, Interior with Blue Terrace and Garden, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 121.9 × 243.8 cm
© David Hockney, Photo: Richard Schmidt
More Than Just Swimming Pools
His pool paintings have made him famous and established him as one of the most important contemporary artists, ranking among the top 100 artists worldwide and the top 10 in England. Nearly everyone is familiar with his seemingly simple paintings of California pools, which have been copied countless times.
When he died in the summer of 2026, the arts section of the *Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung* ran the headline, “Art has never gone swimming more beautifully.”
When you stand in front of one of David Hockney’s original “Pool” paintings, you can appreciate the sophisticated interplay of color and form that irresistibly captures the promise of summer on the canvas.
In California, there were 42,123 swimming pools in Los Angeles alone, between the Hollywood Hills and San Pedro (as of March 2022). You can find the original there everywhere you look. David Hockney lived and worked in California, England, and the South of France. His paintings have been featured in 533 exhibitions in the U.S. alone (source: Artfacts).
David Hockney painting on a color proof of *Caribbean Team Time* from the *Moving Focus* series, Tyler Graphics Ltd. Artist’s studio, Bedford Village, New York, 1985
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Photo: Kenneth Tyler, Gift of Kenneth Tyler, 2002
Bradford, the city in West Yorkshire, England, where David Hockney was born in 1937, is home to the Hockney Foundation, which was founded by the artist and houses more than 9,000 of his works.
At the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo
Exhibition view: David Hockney, *Moving Focus*, Kunstmuseum Luzern, 2022, Photo: Marc Latzel
Following last year’s exhibition in Lucerne, the breadth and ongoing evolution of the artist’s work are now on display in Japan: the outstanding portraits, the striking landscapes, and a series of works that David Hockney (who is very enthusiastic about the technology) created on the iPad .
Opera fans also know David Hockney as a set designer. David Hockney, a music enthusiast—here is his Spotify playlist—has designed the sets for several operas.
At the Glyndebourne Opera House, his set design for Igor Stravinsky’s opera *The Rake’s Progress* was a key part of the production. You can see the set design here and enjoy it along with the wonderful aria “Gently little boat.”
Exhibition view: David Hockney, *Moving Focus*, Kunstmuseum Luzern, 2022, Photo: Marc Latzel
The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo will also feature the large-scale work “A Year in Normandie (202-2021),” which was created on an iPad and can be viewed in a 100 x 9,000 cm format.
Cover image: David Hockney, *California Copied from 1965 Painting in 1987*, acrylic on canvas, 152.1 × 182.6 cm
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of the artist, © David Hockney
