A New Realism: David Hockney
British Pop Artist formed a unique realistic style of painting
Jan 8, 2009
David Hockney is a nonconformist and Intimist whose affectionate record of truths in his “humanism” has an unrealized message lurking throughout every composition. An advocate of free sexual expression, David Hockney admires Walt Whitman’s ideals: “dear love of comrades”, yet he himself is not defined by eloquence. Unlike Whitman, David Hockney is a realist through art and life: “I am twenty-three years old,” he said, “and I wear glasses”.
Realism
Hockney’s said realism is defined as the most conservative of modern styles, the one least given to revolutionizing what it had inherited from the past. Realism, in general, avoids the opportunity to wipe clean and build anew, so common to the avant-garde in the twentieth century. Instead, it favors a persistent, even delirious embrace of the world as constituted. During the late twentieth century, Hockney was a stubborn “pre-modern” in a Modern world, yet despite his realism and nonconformity to the contemporary style, he emphasized the vitality in his numbered, barely articulated figures.
Hockney's Early Career
As a British artist, Hockney’s early years were influenced by the homosexual and nudist magazines in London. These photos became to mean, for the young, impecunious artist, a freedom from the cant and dubious moral standards in England. And it was in California, where Hockney created the one image that not only brought public prominence to his name but also the conventional association to his art: the swimming pool.
Hockney's Art
In "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" Hockney emphasizes the stereotypical yet envied life of the West: blank good life under the California sun. Hockney’s collection of swimming pool compositions are works that only a foreigner could have painted, bringing today’s association of California to canvas.
In "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" Hockney divides his composition in half—realism to the right, and soft, fuzzy, abstracted figures to the left—combining his ability to warp a “realistic” image into a whimsical world of glamour.
The conspicuously clothed boy, leans over the edge of the pool to gaze at an amoebic like figure, swimming in a distant yet, beautiful realm. This image functions as a refusal of the impure world of the everyday, and its use finds its implicit meaning in the gap between those Edenic origins and the disappointing realities of contemporary life.
David Hockney is revolutionary with his realistic composition. With the influence of realism and his own innovations, Hockney was able to establish a new style of his own.
Hockney was criticized as “just painting swimming pools”. David Hockney’s compositional charm tricked his fans into thinking his art was mere benevolence yet, through his struggle with representation, perception, reality, worldview, etc. he was able to not only please the eye aesthetically but also subliminally slip in his messages about society.
Still living today, David Hockney emphasizes the prevalent influence of pop culture on the masses. Whether it’s through mere swimming pools or a Xerox machine, David Hockney has found a way of twisting his perception of everyday things to an artistic view. David Hockney is able to objectify a subject and distinguish its intentions, intentions that define and represent society.
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