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| A Bigger Splash (1967) |
I instinctively knew I was going to like it and as I flew over San Bernardino and saw the swimming pools and the houses and everything and the sun, I was more thrilled than I have ever been in arriving in any city.
--British expatriate artist David Hockney, on the many sun-drenched paintings, particularly those of swimming pools, that he produced while living on the West Coast.
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| 1937-2026 |
He had a long and productive life.
ReplyDeleteDavid, I was surprised at the number of comments for this one. He was more well-known than I thought.
DeleteReading this brings a strong sense of arrival in a sun-heavy place, pools reflecting bright sky, houses set into heat baked streets. Hockney’s description of that first view from above feels like stepping into a different visual language, almost cinematic. The closing note of his years gives it a reflective weight, a reminder of how place can shape vision over time.
ReplyDeleteWell put, Melody. This one picture and one quote don't do justice to Hockney's career. At best, it encapsulates it.
DeleteI love his art. What vision.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mitchell.
DeleteA great lost. I loved his artwork. And when I featured him in my Three Words years back, he garnered one of the most commented about for that post. I was shocked to read he passed.
ReplyDeleteHis age shocked me, Maddie. They're always older than I thought.
DeleteHello Kirk, David Hockey was such an important part of defining the look of his age. His art has a kind of youthful flair, and we are used to seeing his younger photos in those iconic glasses, that (as with so many of the celebrities you feature) it is hard to realize that he was 88.
ReplyDelete--Jim
Jim, I always go for the picture taken when the person career really took off, which in Hockney's case that's the mid-1960s. However, I did come across photos taken in the last ten years or so, and he still had those glasses, or at least a pair very similar.
DeleteRIP David.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ananka.
DeleteI really like the painting!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you do, Linda.
DeleteHIs art was terrific and several years ago we visited an impressive exhibition of his work.
ReplyDeleteI would like to have seen that exhibition, Andrew.
DeleteSorry to learn of his passing
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ruby.
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