Hockney by the Pool

Fashion x Art Edit #2

Keeping with the streak of saturated bold colors for Spring, I turn to the work of David Hockney and imagine a fashionable pool encounter.

David Hockney is famous for his paintings of the sunbathed Californian landscapes and his use of a daring color palette. He alternatively creates psychedelic invitations into the plane surface of the canvas in which depth is condensed, or strictly geometric composition buttressing a universe drawing inspiration from all over paintings and color field, at the intersection of abstraction and figuration.

The painting Pool and Steps, Le Nid du Duc, from 1971, shares the same decor as the famous Pool with Two Figures, 1972 and represents the pool of a villa on the Cote d’Azur in which Hockney spent a Summer. The blue water and steps dominate the composition while the bricks of the pool lining break the unity of the field as a pair of shoes and trees spread the idea of motion created by the pool water.

As the viewer dives into the pool, he has a straight path to get out of the water, grab the shoes and step into the adjacent house he comes to imagine. Feeling blue yet? Not with this outfit!