Water Pouring into Swimming Pool, Santa Monica by David Hockney, b.1937

David Hockney, b.1937
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Water Pouring into Swimming Pool, Santa Monica

Original lithograph in colours. 1964. Signed and dated in pencil. Numbered (17) in pencil from the edition of 75. (There were also 16 proofs). Printed at the Atelier
Matthieu, Zurich 1964. Issued by Editions Alecto, London
1965. Ref: Scottish Arts Council Exhibition - Hockney Prints 1979, no 38.

Extremely fine fresh impression in exceptionally fine condition. On pale cream special japon nacré handmade paper. Full margins. Drawn virtually to the full sheet size, as issued. Sheet: 20 1/8 x 26ins (510 x 660mm)

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Hockney's first arrival in Los Angeles was an absolutely key moment in his whole career as an artist. Brought-up in the north of England, and having studied there and then in London, his whole life ad been coloured by both the weather climate and above all by the moral climate of England. Some success had given him the freedom to travel first to New York and then on to California. The West Coast held out the attraction not only of sunshine but also of a climate where he no longer had to conceal his sexuality. In his interview with Glazebrook in the introduction to the Whitechapel exhibition in 1970 he said:.. As I flew over San Bernardino and looked down and saw the swimming pools and the houses and everything and the sun, I was more thrilled than I've ever been on arriving at any city... The thing is I love glamour places. I love going to places that have glamour.'

Glamour was the key for Hockney, as he felt that through it he could release the inner inhibitions in his art which had seemed so overpowering in England. And the key symbol of that glamour was swimming pools. To have a sun-drenched swimming pool outside your own home was such a total contrast to everything he had known in England that it became the symbol of this new era of his art.

'Water Pouring into Pool, Santa Monica' is the earliest of the great swimming pool images in Hockney's graphic art. The freedom of the pouring water, the carefree images that it evoked mark the great revolution which was taking place in his whole being. (Note: All impressions of the print were printed onto japon nacre paper; this has meant that only those very well looked-after from the beginning have survived in fine condition. This is by far the finest impression we have seen in the past 10 years).