Details — Click to read
This vintage, original poster’s imagery is taken from David Hockney’s 1978 work “Day Pool with Three Blues”, composed of 9 hand colored pressed paper pulp sheets. This poster was printed to promote the French edition of the book “David Hockney: Paper Pools” which reproduces Hockney’s series of images of swimming pools created from paper pulp. Offset lithograph on wove paper.
A bright yellow diving board extends from the lower edge of this poolside scene. Shadows and reflections ripple through the water, inviting the viewer to jump into its blue depths. The surrounding garden is suggested by a stripe of vibrant green bordering the top of the pool.
Hockney’s iconic pool imagery emerged from the artist’s love affair with California, where he first visited in 1963. During this first visit, he scribed a postcard to his painting dealer John Kasmin, back in Britain. “Arrived in the promised land 2 days ago,” he wrote on the back of a postcard featuring sunbathers on a beach and juicy, California oranges. “The world’s most beautiful city is here – LA… You must come.” Won over by the state’s sunny weather and relaxed way of life, Hockney would paint, draw, and photograph the state’s bright colors and light countless times. The swimming pool became his symbol for California.
Here, Hockney’s typical drawing style loosens into painterly abstraction, with the water’s transparency and liquidity represented with daubs of color. The artist worked with vats of dyed rag pulp, which he would apply to metal molds according to his drawings. Hockney was able to use this spontaneous paper pulp medium to convey the quality and movement of water.
