David Hockney Lithographic Water Made of Lines, Crayon, and a Blue Wash (M.C.A.T 212) For Sale

This lithograph is part of a wider series of ‘Lithograph of Water’ prints. Created by David Hockney across the years 1978-80, each print is equal in its elegance and tranquillity. The portfolio was created after Hockney’s seminal move from London to Los Angeles in 1964, where Hockney discovered his new muse: the swimming pool. As Hockney expressed his newfound love for the ‘Golden State’ saying, ‘In America I always feel freer. In California, anyway, I start using brighter colours; I paint broader […] which seems to be better for me’. Furthermore, Los Angeles was a lot more sexually liberated than the United Kingdom, where homosexuality was still illegal during his move, Hockney found an accepting and thriving gay community. Not only do swimming pools represent leisure and luxury, but also the freedom and sexual liberation Hockney experienced in Los Angeles.

The lithograph depicts a scene of a swimming pool, a motif which has since become synonymous with David Hockney. The diving board acts as an anchor to the composition, balancing out the contrast in empty spaces and coloured sections, due to its stillness and blankness. Complete with crosshatching and spontaneous blue crayon lines wiggling within the water, Hockney adds a sense of movement and dynamism within the water. Within the otherwise static composition, these blue lines add an illusion of movement within the mottled surface of moving water. Furthermore, the wash of blue within the water alongside these darker blue lines are reminiscent of the impression of light refracting off water on a hot summers day. There is a sense of ephemerality due to the movement, as we feel the everchanging nature of water rippling gently with a summers breeze. Hockney has created a collection of more abstract lithographs, which act as impressions of a swimming pool rather than realistic depictions. This makes each print feel like a memory, imbuing each print with a nostalgia for a hot summers day spent lounging by the pool. Through each tranquil print, the viewer is pulled further into Hockney’s paradise of 1970s Los Angeles.