.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
‘Water in swimming pools changes its look more than in any other form’ (David Hockney)
Study for Olympic Poster (1970) is a unique and beautiful work on paper that captures the genesis of one of David Hockney’s most iconic images. In a bold composition, Hockney pictures a diver at the moment he is about to break the surface of a pool. The figure is naturalistically rendered: the water, in contrast, is a kaleidoscopic mosaic of looping lines. It lights up around the diver in cells of cyan, ultramarine and two shades of pale blue. An area of pink captures his reflection, fractured by the water’s rippling motion. Elsewhere the lines are unfilled, revealing the delicacy of Hockney’s draughtsmanship. Related closely to his Californian swimming-pool paintings of the 1960s, the work is a celebration of colour, light and movement.
Hockney was among a group of twenty-eight artists tasked with creating posters to promote the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Others included Josef Albers, Eduardo Chillida, Victor Vasarely, Pierre Soulages, Tom Wesselmann and Hockney’s friend R. B. Kitaj. Their responses ranged from muscular depictions of athletic prowess to Op-Art visions of the Olympic rings and graphic abstractions that evoked the speed of the racetrack. Hockney, as was typical of his work, merged abstract and figurative languages, combining a stylised depiction of the water with the carefully observed physique of the plunging diver. The Munich project began an Olympic tradition of poster commissions. Joining Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein and others, Hockney would return with a photo-collaged swimming pool for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics; British artists including Tracey Emin, Chris Ofili and Anthea Hamilton would create posters for the London games in 2012.
Hockney had been painting swimming pools since 1964, when he first visited Los Angeles. The water—with its play of transparency, reflection, distortion and endless movement—sparked a career-long fascination with the nature of visual experience. The present work’s meandering, jigsaw-like surface evokes the abstracted idiom of early examples such as California (1965), which were influenced by Jean Dubuffet’s Hourloupe paintings. The diver, meanwhile, echoes the sensuous male nudes of works such as Sunbather (1966, Museum Ludwig, Cologne). Elsewhere, as in A Bigger Splash (1967, Tate, London), Hockney had pictured a dive’s aftermath in exuberant splashes of paint. The present work is typical of this joyfully experimental period, predating the more naturalistic style that would emerge in the early 1970s.
Tragically, the Munich games would be overshadowed by a terror attack at the Olympic Village, when five athletes and six coaches from the Israeli team were taken hostage and killed. The attack also claimed the lives of five of the perpetrators and a German police officer. The games would also be remembered, however, for scenes of sporting triumph, with the American swimmer Mark Spitz famously winning seven gold medals and setting seven world records in a spectacular run. Hockney’s poster has become an emblem of the Olympic spirit.
Study for Olympic Poster (1970) is a unique and beautiful work on paper that captures the genesis of one of David Hockney’s most iconic images. In a bold composition, Hockney pictures a diver at the moment he is about to break the surface of a pool. The figure is naturalistically rendered: the water, in contrast, is a kaleidoscopic mosaic of looping lines. It lights up around the diver in cells of cyan, ultramarine and two shades of pale blue. An area of pink captures his reflection, fractured by the water’s rippling motion. Elsewhere the lines are unfilled, revealing the delicacy of Hockney’s draughtsmanship. Related closely to his Californian swimming-pool paintings of the 1960s, the work is a celebration of colour, light and movement.
Hockney was among a group of twenty-eight artists tasked with creating posters to promote the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Others included Josef Albers, Eduardo Chillida, Victor Vasarely, Pierre Soulages, Tom Wesselmann and Hockney’s friend R. B. Kitaj. Their responses ranged from muscular depictions of athletic prowess to Op-Art visions of the Olympic rings and graphic abstractions that evoked the speed of the racetrack. Hockney, as was typical of his work, merged abstract and figurative languages, combining a stylised depiction of the water with the carefully observed physique of the plunging diver. The Munich project began an Olympic tradition of poster commissions. Joining Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein and others, Hockney would return with a photo-collaged swimming pool for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics; British artists including Tracey Emin, Chris Ofili and Anthea Hamilton would create posters for the London games in 2012.
Hockney had been painting swimming pools since 1964, when he first visited Los Angeles. The water—with its play of transparency, reflection, distortion and endless movement—sparked a career-long fascination with the nature of visual experience. The present work’s meandering, jigsaw-like surface evokes the abstracted idiom of early examples such as California (1965), which were influenced by Jean Dubuffet’s Hourloupe paintings. The diver, meanwhile, echoes the sensuous male nudes of works such as Sunbather (1966, Museum Ludwig, Cologne). Elsewhere, as in A Bigger Splash (1967, Tate, London), Hockney had pictured a dive’s aftermath in exuberant splashes of paint. The present work is typical of this joyfully experimental period, predating the more naturalistic style that would emerge in the early 1970s.
Tragically, the Munich games would be overshadowed by a terror attack at the Olympic Village, when five athletes and six coaches from the Israeli team were taken hostage and killed. The attack also claimed the lives of five of the perpetrators and a German police officer. The games would also be remembered, however, for scenes of sporting triumph, with the American swimmer Mark Spitz famously winning seven gold medals and setting seven world records in a spectacular run. Hockney’s poster has become an emblem of the Olympic spirit.