I know, is a cliché, because now It's a little bit colder than usual and rainy. Those days in California don't seem summer. But sometimes we have really hot days, and the people use the pools. Incredible, a pool for winter! It's Los Angeles.
Since I'm in L.A. I've tried to think in a painter that reflects California, o at least one characteristic of it. David Hockney was the answer. Even He is a British painter, Hockney came to California in Ja-nuary 1964, recently started his career as an artist. He graduated in the Royal College of Art in Lon-don few years before he visited United States in 1963. It was in New York where he met Andy Warhol and decided to join the Pop Art movement.
It is obvious that He was attracted by the pools. In London nobody use an outside pool in January, but Los Angeles is different. You never know when you want to use it. So it was in January 1964 when Hockney painted his first Californian pools.
There is no pool but we can imagine that the house has one.
Also we have the Portrait of Nick Wilder, one of his friends, inside the pool.
Since I'm in L.A. I've tried to think in a painter that reflects California, o at least one characteristic of it. David Hockney was the answer. Even He is a British painter, Hockney came to California in Ja-nuary 1964, recently started his career as an artist. He graduated in the Royal College of Art in Lon-don few years before he visited United States in 1963. It was in New York where he met Andy Warhol and decided to join the Pop Art movement.
It is obvious that He was attracted by the pools. In London nobody use an outside pool in January, but Los Angeles is different. You never know when you want to use it. So it was in January 1964 when Hockney painted his first Californian pools.
These pictures belong to his first visit to Los Angeles. It represents the lifestyle of California, and the main object is pool.
He returned to California in summer 1966, to teach drawing at UCLA (University of Los Angeles) and met Betty Freeman, who posed for the painting Beverly Hills Housewife.
Also we have the Portrait of Nick Wilder, one of his friends, inside the pool.
Spring 1967 is the time when Hockney teaches at the University of California in Berkeley. In that period we have two important paintings about summer and water in California: A Bigger Splash and
A Lawn being sprinkled.
These pictures were created with the purpose of finding new ways to represent water.
During the 70's Hockney and his friends traveled to many countries, but in 1978 he decided to move to Los Angeles and become his permanent resident. So, we have again paintings of pools but the perspective is different.
I added that picture, Santa Monica Boulevard, because I see everyday in every corner a car dealer with attractive prices on the cars.
During the 80's he continues traveling and changes his style. Hockney experimented with cubism and other avant-garde movements after the death of Picasso, The palette is bold but it doesn't reflect summer. In the 90's he recovers his past style, but mostly for portraits.
2000's and 2010's are the period for landscape in the long artistic career of David Hockney. He painted every state of USA and sometimes typical landscapes in UK. But summer is back in his new and fresh style.
For his garden's house in Los Angeles, he uses the Matisse's palette. It looks cold, but it's the way to depict the hot and humid weather in California. One of the points in the picture is the strong red earth tone for the plant pots. The other important characteristic is the two points perspective, that makes the painting a really closed space. We cannot go beyond the garden. We back to the terrace and see the pool again.
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