DAVID HOCKNEY (b. 1937)
Drawing of a Pool and Towel, 1971
Colored crayon, pencil and pastel on paper
43.2 x 35.2 cm (17 x 13 7/8 inches)
Initialed, dated 1971 and dedicated for Jean (upper right)

Provenance
Jean Leger, Paris (acquired as a gift from the artist)
Galerie Editions Karl Flinker, Paris
Private Collection
Christie’s, London, 9 December 1999, lot 631 (consigned by the above)
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner

Auction History
Sotheby’s New-York: 18 May 2023
Estimated: USD 1,000,000 – 1,500,000
USD 3,085,000
WORK ON PAPER

Drawing of a Pool and Towel | Contemporary Evening Auction | 2023 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

 

Offering a sunlit glimpse of such innately American themes as Hollywood, leisure, sexuality, and suburbia of the 1950s and 1960s, Drawing of a Pool and Towel embodies the essence of Californian life that has inspired David Hockney throughout his illustrious career. Nowhere is Hockney’s genius more evident than in his iconic images of swimming pools, which evoke distinctive and remarkably intimate experiences of reality and memory. Playfully depicting the poolside atmosphere on paper through saturated color, sinuous line, and precise details like a half-full martini glass and open book, Drawing of a Pool and Towel stands as a vivid testament to Hockney’s singular artistic practice, illustrating the rich color palette, complex compositional structure, and intimately significant subject matter that characterize the very best of the artist’s celebrated oeuvre. Within the sundrenched world of Drawing of a Pool and Towel, as in so many of Hockney’s most iconic works, the swimming pool holds a particular significance, both as a visual representation of the very apotheosis of the stylish, American good life and as a key stylistic motif. Some of the most iconic works of the post-war canon, Hockney’s swimming pools reside in the collections of esteemed institutions including the Tate Modern, London; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Portland Art Museum; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Drawn to all that the swimming pool could represent – from love and lust to tranquility and leisure – Hockney was also intrigued by the formal challenges of depicting water, a subject which is at once unfixed and entirely transparent to the eye.

“Water in swimming pools changes its look more than any other form. The color of a river is related to the sky it reflects, and the sea always seems to me to be the same color and have the same dancing patterns. But the look of swimming-pool water is controllable – even its color is man-made—and its dancing rhythms reflect not only the sky but, because of its transparency, the depth of the water as well.”

Indeed, the sinuous yellow curls and curves of Drawing of a Pool and Towel depict the pool water as a dancing, twisting web, calling to mind calligraphic and rhythmic compositions of Brice Marden’s Cold Mountain paintings or the thunderous crimson crests and roaring riptides of Cy Twombly’s legendary Bacchus series.