Hubbry Logo
The SplashThe SplashMain
Open search
The Splash
Community hub
The Splash
logo
7 pages, 0 posts
0 subscribers
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
The Splash
The Splash
The Splash
View on Wikipedia
from Wikipedia

The Splash
ArtistDavid Hockney
Year1966 (1966)
MediumAcrylic on canvas
Dimensions180 cm × 180 cm (72 in × 72 in)
OwnerPrivate collection

The Splash is a 1966 pop art painting by the British artist David Hockney. It depicts a swimming pool beside a pavilion, disturbed by a splash of water created by an unseen figure who has apparently just jumped in from a diving board. It is made in acrylic on a 72 in (180 cm) square canvas, and is titled, signed and dated 1966 on the reverse. It is one of three connected works painted in 1966 and 1967: the others are The Little Splash (1966, private collection), and A Bigger Splash (1967, Tate Britain, London).[1][2]

Hockney first visited Los Angeles in 1964. Entranced by the landscape, light and lifestyle, and in particular the blue swimming pools, he moved to California in 1966.

The Splash is the second in a sequence of three paintings of similar scenes made by Hockney in late 1966 and early 1967. Hockney worked up from the small The Little Splash through the midsized The Splash, both made in Los Angeles in 1966, to the largest, A Bigger Splash, approximately 96 in (240 cm) square, made in Berkeley in 1967.

Using abstracted shapes of flat colour with sharply defined edges, at the centre of a large canvas with an unprimed border, Hockney depicts the fleeting moment just after a diver has entered the water of a swimming pool from a diving board, throwing up white spray. Hockney delighted in taking weeks to carefully paint the heavily worked spray using small brushes, freezing this dramatic detail in time, an event which had only lasted a short moment. The square format and unpainted border creates an effect like a Polaroid photograph.

The composition is based on a photograph on the front of a technical manual on swimming pool construction (Swimming Pools by Sunset Books, published in 1959) which depicts a single-storey pavilion with splayed bonnet roof, beside a pool over which projects a diving board, with two people observing the splash created by an unseen diver, amid green scenery beneath blue skies.

Hockey's series gradually simplifies and abstracts the composition, cropping the scene, and removing the people, pool furniture, scenery, and other distractions. The Little Splash and The Splash retained the bonnet-roofed pavilion, but the building became a longer, lower modernist structure with a flat roof in A Bigger Splash.

In The Splash, a beige diving board projects diagonally from the lower right corner of the painting over a deep blue pool with a white splash of water fountaining into the air, capturing the moment immediately after someone has dived in. The diver is not visible, presumably still under the water. Beside the pool is a pink patio with black margin, and some cacti in a square flower bed. The pavilion has a white wall and grey roof, with a curtain and reflections in its large sliding glass doors. Behind is some featureless green scenery, and a cloudless lighter blue sky.

The Splash has passed through a number of private galleries and art collections. It has been auctioned at Sotheby’s in London three times, first in July 1973, after which it was owned for a time by David Geffen. It was auctioned again at Sotheby's in London in June 2006, and bought for £2.9 million by a private collector, setting a (then) record price for a Hockney (the current record was set in 2018 by the $90.3 million paid for his Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)).[1][2] It was next sold in February 2020, offered by Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau at Sotheby's in London,[3] to an unknown buyer for £23.1 million (US $29.9 million), then the third highest amount paid for a Hockney at auction.[1][2]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

The Splash

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
The Splash is a 1966 acrylic painting on canvas by British artist , measuring 183 by 183 centimetres (72 by 72 inches), that captures the instantaneous moment after a diver enters a sun-drenched California-style , rendering the resulting splash with vivid and whites against a minimalist architectural backdrop. Created during Hockney's early years in Los Angeles, where he had relocated in 1964, the work forms part of a trio of "splash" paintings—the others being The Little Splash (also 1966) and A Bigger Splash (1967)—that explore the interplay of water, light, and transience in the context of Southern California's modernist leisure culture. Inspired by a 1959 book cover photograph of a diver mid-splash and Hockney's fascination with capturing fleeting events in paint, the composition employs clean lines, unprimed canvas borders, and acrylic's quick-drying properties to contrast geometric order with chaotic motion, blending Pop art, Minimalism, and Abstract Expressionism. As one of Hockney's most iconic images, The Splash exemplifies his innovative approach to perspective and the depiction of transparency, influencing perceptions of mid-20th-century American lifestyle and achieving significant market recognition when it sold at for £23.1 million (approximately $29.8 million) in 2020, following a previous sale of £2.9 million in 2006. The painting has been exhibited in major retrospectives, including at the Tate Gallery in 1988–1989, underscoring its enduring status in history.

Background

David Hockney's California Period

David Hockney arrived in Los Angeles in 1964 at the age of 27, having funded the trip through proceeds from the sale of his etching series A Rake's Progress following his graduation from the Royal College of Art two years earlier. He was immediately captivated by the city's modernist architecture, the intense bright sunlight, and the sprawling suburban lifestyle, which contrasted sharply with the overcast skies and constrained urban environments of his native England. This initial immersion prompted Hockney to adopt acrylic paints for their quick-drying properties and vivid hues, enabling him to capture the luminous quality of the Californian light. To Hockney, California symbolized freedom and modernity, offering a liberating escape from the rigid social norms and industrial drabness of his Bradford upbringing in northern England. The region's permissive culture allowed him to live more openly as a gay man, unburdened by the legal and social restrictions he faced in Britain, where homosexuality remained criminalized until 1967. This personal emancipation influenced a stylistic evolution toward brighter colors and flattened, graphic forms aligned with his emerging pop art sensibilities, emphasizing everyday American iconography over the introspective narratives of his earlier works. Hockney's fascination with California had been sparked earlier, during his time at the Royal College of Art around , through films, photographs, and accounts from friends who had traveled there, planting the seed for his transatlantic aspirations. His 1964 arrival marked the beginning of extended stays through 1966, during which he deeply immersed himself in Hollywood's vibrant social scene and the ubiquitous backyard pool culture that defined suburbia. These years solidified 's role as a pivotal influence on his artistic output, shifting his focus toward the optimistic, sun-soaked motifs that would characterize his mature style.

Influences on the Work

The creation of The Splash (1966) was directly inspired by a photograph on the cover of Sunset Swimming Pools, a technical manual on pool construction published in 1959 by Sunset Books in . This image depicted a diver mid-entry into the water, creating a dynamic splash that Hockney adapted to emphasize the disturbance in the pool's surface, transforming a mundane instructional photo into a central motif of frozen action and transparency. Hockney encountered the book during his time in , where he frequently drew from photographic references to capture the optical effects of light and water. Artistically, The Splash reflects the influence of American Pop Art's emphasis on bold, flat colors and everyday consumer imagery, echoing the style of contemporaries like and , who elevated ordinary scenes to iconic status. Hockney incorporated these elements to depict leisure and modernity with a detached, graphic quality, while also drawing from earlier American realists such as and Charles Sheeler for the stark architectural forms and suburban isolation. Additionally, Hollywood imagery permeated the work, evoking cinematic tropes of affluent life seen in films like Sunset Boulevard (1950), where pools symbolize glamour intertwined with transience and desire. In the broader cultural landscape, the painting captures the California pool culture as an emblem of affluence, , and optimistic , where backyard pools represented the aspirational amid suburban expansion. This context, rooted in Hockney's immersion in during his California period, infused the work with a sense of utopian contrasted by subtle undercurrents of .

Description

Visual Composition

The Splash features a square format measuring 183 cm × 183 cm, with wide bands of unprimed white canvas framing the central scene, evoking the border of a Polaroid photograph. Dominating the composition is the central splash of bright blue water erupting from a rectangular pool, capturing the instant an unseen diver enters the water; the splash consists of dynamic white tendrils, jets of foam, ripples, and scattered droplets frozen mid-motion against the pool's cerulean depths. Extending from the left edge over the pool is a wooden diving board, positioned as the point of departure for the absent diver. To the right of the pool stands a simple structure with clean geometric lines, adjacent to the water's edge. In the background, abstracted palm trees rise subtly above a wooden fence, enclosing the minimalist Californian poolside setting. The overall layout employs flat, unmodulated color fields in high-key tones, achieved through , to emphasize the spatial arrangement and clarity of the depicted elements.

Materials and Technique

The Splash was created using on , a medium Hockney selected for its quick-drying properties that enabled the layered application of flat, vibrant colors such as for the . Hockney employed a hard-edged technique, featuring precise lines and minimal blending of colors to produce a graphic, poster-like quality. Large expanses of the composition, including the and pool surfaces, were rendered for uniform, even coverage devoid of visible brushstrokes, while the splash was painted using small brushes over two weeks for detailed form. This approach highlights stylistic hallmarks such as the emphasis on bold primary colors and geometric forms, contributing to the work's modern, sensibility.

Creation

Inspiration and Concept

The Splash was conceptualized by as the central work in a trilogy exploring the dynamic theme of water entry into a , following the smaller preparatory piece The Little Splash in 1966 and preceding the larger-scale in 1967. This series allowed Hockney to progressively scale up the depiction of the splash's impact, emphasizing repetition and variation to capture the essence of a singular, explosive moment amid California's modernist architecture. Central to the concept was Hockney's fascination with rendering the "moment after" a diver's entry, deliberately omitting the figure to underscore the absence and the splash's inherent transience, which he saw as a symbol of fleeting pleasure and joy. Hockney articulated this intent by noting, “I loved the idea of painting this thing that lasts for two seconds; it takes me two weeks to paint this event that lasts for two seconds,” thereby contrasting the action's with the static endurance of the . Developed in 1966 while Hockney was living in , the painting emerged from his immersion in the city's sunlit, pool-centric lifestyle, where he aimed to fuse British artistic traditions with American cultural exuberance. This synthesis reflected his broader period, blending restrained composition with vibrant, liberated energy. The initial visual reference derived from a on the cover of a 1959 manual on construction, providing a foundational snapshot of the splash.

Painting Process

David Hockney created The Splash in his studio during 1966, as the second work in a trilogy of pool paintings that explored the dynamics of water in motion. The process began with the establishment of the composition's foundational elements, including the rectangular , the adjacent modernist house, and the surrounding palm trees, rendered in vibrant acrylic paints to evoke the intense sunlight. These background and pool areas were completed rapidly, in just a few days, allowing Hockney to focus his efforts on the central motif. The most demanding aspect of the production was depicting the splash itself, which Hockney approached with deliberate precision to freeze a transient event lasting only two seconds. Drawing from a in a manual as reference—rather than an on-site capture of the precise moment—he employed small brushes and fine lines to build up layers of translucent whites, blues, and subtle shading, meticulously replicating the irregular shapes and spray patterns of the water droplets. This phase spanned nearly two weeks of intensive work, involving multiple revisions to achieve a stylized realism that balanced photographic accuracy with artistic . A key challenge lay in conveying the paradoxical nature of water's fluidity and transparency on a static , without relying on the diver's figure to imply action, thereby emphasizing the splash as the painting's dynamic protagonist. Hockney addressed this by experimenting iteratively on smaller-scale preparatory works, such as The Little Splash earlier in 1966, before scaling up to the 72-by-72-inch format of The Splash. The painting was completed by the end of 1966, marking a pivotal refinement in Hockney's technique for subsequent larger iterations in the series.

Significance

Role in Pop Art

The Splash (1966) exemplifies the movement's embrace of consumer culture by elevating the mundane icon of the suburban to a symbol of American leisure and affluence, much like Andy Warhol's depictions of consumer goods or Roy Lichtenstein's comic strips. Hockney's painting captures the transient moment of a diver's splash against the backdrop of a modernist poolside, using flat, vibrant acrylic colors to evoke the glossy allure of advertising imagery prevalent in post-war America. This alignment with Pop Art's fascination for everyday objects and mass media reflects Hockney's immersion in culture during the , where swimming pools represented aspirational excess. Hockney innovated within Pop Art by adapting its principles to landscape painting, infusing bold, primary colors and geometric precision with an ironic detachment that both celebrated and subtly critiqued the hedonistic opulence of American suburbia. Unlike the static repetitions in Warhol's work or the narrative bold lines in Lichtenstein's, Hockney's approach rendered the fluidity of water through meticulous reproduction of photographic details, contrasting the splash's brevity—lasting mere seconds—with the two-week painting process, thereby highlighting themes of impermanence amid material abundance. This stylistic fusion of British Pop's wit and American Pop's scale positioned The Splash as a bridge between the two variants, employing irony to underscore the superficiality of consumer-driven lifestyles while reveling in their visual vibrancy. Upon its creation in the 1960s, The Splash received acclaim for its role in merging the irreverent humor of British Pop with the bold of its American counterpart. The work's inclusion in major collections underscored its immediate impact, influencing subsequent artists to explore motifs in Pop-inspired contexts, from poolside scenes to broader examinations of recreational excess. This reception affirmed Hockney's contribution to Pop Art's evolution, expanding its scope beyond urban icons to the sun-drenched landscapes of the West Coast.

Interpretations and Themes

The Splash (1966) explores the of joy through its depiction of a momentary water disturbance in an otherwise static poolside scene, capturing an event that lasts mere seconds while requiring weeks of meticulous . Hockney himself emphasized this contrast, noting, "I loved the idea of this thing that lasts for two seconds; it takes me two weeks to paint this event that lasts for two seconds." The absent male diver, implied by the splash, underscores themes of isolation within an idealized paradise, evoking a serene yet solitary domesticity amid the sun-drenched Modernist and palm trees that symbolize 's . This emptiness has been likened to Paul Gauguin's exoticized , portraying an Edenic vision that feels both inviting and uninhabited. As a artist navigating America, Hockney infused The Splash with homoerotic undertones through the coded representation of desire, with the invisible diver suggesting a fleeting, unspoken male presence in a space of sexual liberation. Hockney acknowledged this layer, stating, "No doubt it had something to do with ," reflecting how California's pool culture enabled bolder expressions of identity amid societal constraints. These elements prefigure later AIDS-era reflections on transient pleasure and loss, as the painting's exuberant yet intangible joy resonates with broader narratives of vulnerability in paradise. The work also symbolizes California's artificial glamour, using vivid acrylic colors and clean lines to highlight the synthetic allure of suburban leisure, a novelty in that abstracted natural elements into stylized opulence. Critics view The Splash as optimistic yet melancholic, with the dynamic splash serving as an intrusion into the serene, ordered environment, the rigidity of Minimalist abstraction through Hockney's parodic precision. curator Chris Stephens described it as a "parodic " of abstract gestures, where the laborious rendering of fluidity contrasts the painting's frozen moment. This tension captures a bittersweet commentary on disruption and harmony, aligning with Pop art's ironic embrace of consumerist bliss while hinting at underlying solitude.

Provenance

Ownership History

The Splash, completed in 1966, passed from to early owners including the Landau-Alan Gallery, New York; Galerie Renée Ziegler, ; and Hans-Edmund Siemers, , who consigned it to auction at in on July 5, 1973. The painting was acquired by British John Kasmin, Hockney's longtime gallerist. Following its acquisition by Kasmin Gallery, The Splash entered a private collection in before being purchased by American entertainment executive sometime in the early 1980s. Geffen held the work until 1985, when he sold it to another private collector. The painting remained in private hands through the late 20th and early 21st centuries until it reappeared at auction at on June 21, 2006, where it was acquired by Hong Kong-based businessman . Lau maintained ownership for over a decade, keeping it in his . In February 2020, Lau consigned The Splash to once more, and it was purchased by , who reacquired the work he had owned decades earlier. As of November 2025, the painting continues to be held in Geffen's in the United States.

Auctions and Sales

The Splash first appeared at auction in 1973 at in , where it sold for £25,000 to the artist's dealer, John Kasmin, indicating early market interest in Hockney's pool series despite the modest price relative to later valuations. Over three decades later, the painting returned to the market at on , 2006, fetching £2.9 million (approximately $5.4 million at the time) to billionaire , which established a then-record price for a work by Hockney and underscored the growing appreciation for his California-inspired motifs. Lau consigned the work to again on February 11, 2020, where it achieved £23.1 million (US $29.9 million) after competitive bidding, acquired by entertainment mogul ; this sale marked the third-highest auction result for Hockney to date and highlighted the sustained demand for his iconic splash imagery amid a robust postwar and market.

References

  1. https://www.myartbroker.com/artist-david-hockney/articles/david-hockney-the-splash
  2. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-david-hockneys-pool-paintings-making-splash
  3. https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/david-hockneys-iconic-masterpiece-the-splash
  4. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/feb/11/david-hockneys-the-splash-sold-for-more-than-23-million
  5. https://www.christies.com/en/stories/david-hockney-california-1965-aa86e1159afa4dbb922485cbe33e43f8
  6. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/l-a-habitat-david-hockney-5878/
  7. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hockney-a-bigger-splash-t03254/understanding-david-hockneys-bigger-splash
  8. https://www.tate.org.uk/research/tate-papers/27/david-hockney-etchings
  9. https://www.burlington.org.uk/archive/article/the-photographic-source-and-artistic-affinities-of-davidhockneys-a-bigger-splash
  10. https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2019/contemporary-art-eve-l20020/lot.16.html
  11. https://www.myartbroker.com/artist-david-hockney/articles/david-hockney-splash-the-california-pool-paintings
  12. https://www.theartstory.org/artist/hockney-david/
  13. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/pop-art/
  14. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20170210-the-bewitching-allure-of-hockneys-swimming-pools
  15. https://news.artnet.com/market/sothebys-contemporary-art-evening-sale-2020-1775637
  16. https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddawkins/2020/02/12/anonymous-collector-sells-hockneys-the-splash-in-london-for-30-million/
  17. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jun-22-wk-quick22.2-story.html
  18. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-14/geffen-splashes-30-million-on-art-after-selling-home-to-bezos
  19. https://www.myartbroker.com/artist-david-hockney/articles/who-owns-a-david-hockney
  20. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/jun/22/1
  21. https://artlawandmore.com/2020/02/14/hockneys-iconic-pool-painting-sells-for-23-1-million-in-london/
  22. https://news.artnet.com/market/sothebys-will-try-make-waves-sale-splashy-hockney-london-next-month-1751382
  23. https://www.cnn.com/style/article/david-hockney-the-splash-auction
  24. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51458346
  25. https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/technology/article/david-geffen-mogul-makes-a-23m-splash-again-mwx2j58jd
Add your contribution
Related Hubs
User Avatar
No comments yet.