ARTWORK:
“Still here. (Pool with Two Figures)”
Oil on canvas, 81x116cm.
Available!
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Despite the diversity of David Hockney’s work, his most recognizable paintings have become his depictions of swimming pools. Bright sunlight, deep shadows, transparent blue water, and lush greenery… These canvases are imbued with a sense of blissful serenity. However, the painting Portrait of an Artist was created during a time when Hockney was in deep depression after breaking up with his lover, Peter Schlesinger.
This work became a key element in Jack Hazan’s film A Bigger Splash, released in 1974. The painting, which gave the semi-documentary film its title, was painted by Hockney at the peak of his infatuation. Hazan, however, made homosexual love drama the central theme of his film, building the narrative specifically around Portrait of an Artist. The painting became a symbol of estrangement, of the abyss that had opened between two people who were once close.
Hazan filmed for three years, seizing every opportunity to capture Hockney in natural surroundings—with his real friends, at work, and at social events. Often the artist didn’t even realize he was in front of the camera. Filled with naked male bodies and rather explicit scenes, yet free from artificiality and theatricality, the film turned out to be as documentary as possible and, consequently, deeply intimate.
When Hazan first showed the film to Hockney, the artist was shocked. He fell into a deep depression, shut himself inside his house for two weeks, and cursed the day he had met the director. He even tried to buy back the footage and the finished film so the public would never see it, but Hazan was unyielding. The film became a kind of sensation. One of Hockney’s friends, after watching it, remarked that it was “truer than truth itself.” On the one hand, the film pulled back the curtain of exclusivity and mystery surrounding the bohemian world, and on the other—and far more importantly—it spoke openly about homosexual relationships. Hazan later recalled that after the film’s release, young gay men would visit Hockney to thank him for helping others see homosexuals simply as ordinary people.
My own painting, in turn, can be considered a tribute to the artist who, through his work, made another step toward the visibility of LGBT people worldwide.
The idea of my painting was also to create a double portrait, but I decided to exclude from the composition that very moment of estrangement and detachment. I removed all the water from the pool, which in Hockney’s original work symbolized the element separating two people. After all, feelings between people can last much longer than it takes for an entire pool to dry up. So in my painting, there is still the same atmosphere of serenity: bright sunlight glimmers across surfaces, lush greenery fills the background, the vibrant juicy colors of summer pulsate—but the pool is almost empty. One of the figures still waits at the pool’s edge, while the other finally turns his gaze toward him, realizing he is still waiting and seems a little confused 🙂
Naturally, I did not want to copy the artist’s technique, but I wanted to preserve the overall atmosphere, palette, and compositional minimalism that, at the same time, creates a sense of air and depth.
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