David Hockney Lithographic Water Made of Lines and Crayon (M.C.A.T 211) For Sale

This serene lithograph is part of David Hockney’s Lithograph of Water series, which is made up of eleven prints, which all depict the same tranquil scene of an empty swimming pool. This series was created after Hockney’s seminal move to Los Angeles in 1964, where the young artist immediately fell in love with the freedom and liberation within the ‘Golden State’. Furthermore, Hockney fell in love with the endless array of swimming pools across the state, saying ‘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.’ Swimming pools remained a lifelong muse for Hockney, returning to them throughout his oeuvre, in pieces such as A Bigger Splash and Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), which sold for $90.3 million in 2018.

These works marked a turning point in Hockney’s artistic oeuvre within the 1970s. This was a seminal point in his career, as he began working alongside the master printers Gemini G.E.L. of LA. This allowed Hockney freedom to experiment with his printmaking techniques, inspiring him to create his first series of lithographs, A Hollywood Collection. There is still a sense of spontaneity and experimentation within this portfolio, as although the base image of the swimming pool and diving board is the same within each print, Hockney has experimented within each print. For example, some are more detailed and ‘Pop-Arty’ than others, where Hockney has used a wash of bright blues and greens, or thicker lines. In contrast, there are prints such as this one which is much more minimalist and abstract, where Hockney has left merely the essence of detail. The lines and colours are less solid, creating an ephemeral feel to the piece which echoes the transient moment of light dancing on the dappled surface of water. This creates a sense of nostalgia to the print, as the minimalist swimming pool feels more like a fleeting memory of Hockney’s seemingly paradisical years in Los Angeles, than a realistic depiction.