Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)
| Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) |
|---|
| David Hockney , 1972 |
| Acrylic on canvas |
| 213.5 x 305 cm |
| Private collection
Link to the picture |
Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (German: Portrait of an Artist - Pool with Two Figures ) is an acrylic painting on canvas by the British painter David Hockney . The 213.5 cm high and 305 cm wide painting is one of the painter's main works from his early work phase. In the picture, Hockney shows a swimming pool in front of the southern French landscape , at the edge of which the artist Peter Schlesinger is standing and watching a man swimming underwater. The work marks the end of Hockney's five-year relationship with Schlesinger, who was previously his lover and muse . The creation of the picture is documented by photographs, statements by those involved and by a movie. The painting is in a private collection.
Image description
The painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) combines the two genres of portrait and landscape painting . It shows a scene in bright colors against a Mediterranean backdrop on a summer's day. In the lower part of the picture you can see a rectangular swimming pool filled with water, which is cropped from the lower and left edges of the picture. Hockney painted the water in different shades of blue and tried to reproduce the lighting effects in the pool. Curved white lines show the movements of the water. The pool is surrounded by a terrace-like area that extends to the right edge of the picture. Dark brown tiles can be seen on the inside of the pool, the area around the pool is paved with light stone slabs. The angular shapes of the pool, the tiles and stone slabs create an orderly network of horizontal and vertical lines.
Two people populate the scene and fit into the network of lines: In the pool, a man dressed in white swimming trunks swims underwater towards the right edge of the pool and underlines the horizontal, while the second person, dressed as a vertical figure, stands and stands up at the edge of the pool looking down at the pool. The man in the pool swims with his head down, so that in addition to his light flesh, only the shoulder-length brown hair characterizes his external appearance. The second person is Peter Schlesinger, Hockney's longtime lover and muse. It can be seen from the side so that the face appears in profile. His complexion is slightly tanned, and his full blond hair mostly hides his ears. In contrast to the swimmer, Schlesinger is fully clothed. He is wearing a red jacket, including a purple shirt and white T-shirt, plus white trousers and brown loafers. His figure casts a shadow on the floor that reaches down to the right.
In the upper part of the picture, a landscape of different hills appears as the background, the sloping lines of which stand out from the network of lines in the foreground. While various tree species can still be seen nearby in green and ocher, the hills appear overall as simplified forms. The surrounding hills on the left and right are green, while further hills in the distance appear as a bluish silhouette. Although parts of the painting appear very lifelike, in other areas it is “carefully schematized, extremely artificial”.
The atmosphere is generally more harmonious and peaceful, but Peter Schlesinger's person is a mystery. It remains unclear why he appears dressed at the pool, how he relates to the swimmer in the pool, and what meaning is hidden behind his expressionless look down. Although the title Portrait of an Artist can be read as an indication of Schlesinger's profession as an artist, Hockney depicted his friend in this picture without any props that characterize him as a visual artist. Various authors therefore came to the idea that the artist in the picture title was Hockney himself, represented metonymically in the painting by the swimming pool, an iconographic motif for the artist . Hockney has neither signed nor dated the painting.
Hockney in California - first swimming pool pictures are taken
Born in Bradford , North England in 1937 , Hockney studied art at the Royal College of Art in London and graduated with honors in 1962. In 1964 he visited Los Angeles and settled there that same year. At the same time he began to paint with acrylic paint and changed his style from a previously more expressionistic style of painting to a representation that was more committed to realism . In addition, the first time he worked with Polaroid - instant cameras . During this time, the photographs served as a template for his paintings; years later, photo collages were created as independent works of art in Hockney's oeuvre . In 1966 he met the 18-year-old art student Peter Schlesinger and began a love affair with him. Both lived together from then on, first in California and later also in London. Schlesinger became Hockney's muse and in the following years often served as a model for his works.
Since the mid-1960s, Hockney has repeatedly worked on pictures in which a swimming pool plays an important role. This includes the painting Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool from 1966 , which shows the naked Peter Schlesinger leaving a pool. The following year Hockney received the John Moore Liverpool Exhibition Prize for the painting, and in 1968 it was purchased for the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool . The success of the picture went a long way towards making Hockney's pictures from California known to a wide audience.
For his motifs with swimmers, Hockney went back to the subject of bathers, which has been common in art history since the Renaissance. Well-known examples such as A woman bathes in the river (Hendrickje Stoffels) by Rembrandt van Rijn , The great bathers by Paul Cézanne or Bathers in Asnières by Georges Seurat knew Hockney from his visits to the National Gallery in London . Art critic Christopher Knight pointed out that bathers can be read as a symbol of a lost, pastoral Arcadia full of peace and harmony that contrasts with the world of everyday life.
One of the most famous works with a swimming pool motif is Hockney's 1967 painting A Bigger Splash ( Tate Gallery , London), a large-format picture showing a swimming pool with water splashing. Christopher Knight described the picture as "a loving image of the good, but meaningless life under the California sun". A motif "as only a foreigner can have painted it". For Knight, the swimming pool motif is the theme "commonly associated with David Hockney's art."
Although his pool pictures are primarily associated with terms such as leisure and prosperity , Hockney said he was concerned with other questions when looking at the motif. He was not interested in the representation of a hedonistic leisure activity, rather the play of light on the surface of the water attracted him. Hockney commented: “Well, it's that surface that fascinates me; and that's what those paintings are about really ”(meaning: Well, it's this surface that fascinated me, and that's really what these pictures are about ).
The picture of a separation - background to the creation of the painting
There are only a few paintings by Hockney that have as well documented their origins as Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) . These include photographs that were used in preparation for the painting and numerous documented statements by people who were involved in the creation of the picture, including statements by Hockney himself. In addition, the director Jack Hazan made one about Hockney from 1970 to 1973 semi-documentary biopic that was released under the title A Bigger Splash . The film shows a portrait of Hockney as a person and as an artist as well as a description of his surroundings. Here real events mix with fictional sequences. Even if the title was taken from Hockney's painting of the same name from 1967, this image plays a subordinate role in the film. Instead, the creation of Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) is shown, which runs like a red thread through the film.
After there had been increasing tensions between Hockney and Peter Schlesinger for some time, a heated argument broke out in the summer of 1971 during a holiday in Cadaqués , which led to the couple's final separation. Hockney, who later suffered from heartache, later described his situation: “It was very traumatic for me”, “I'd never been through anything like that. I was miserable, very, very unhappy. " (Basically: "It was very traumatic for me", "I had never experienced anything like this before. I was miserable, very, very unhappy"). Despite this emotional crisis, Hockney worked very intensively at the time, sometimes up to 15 hours a day. He himself said that he just wanted to work and felt very lonely. Hockney was working on a series of paintings in the summer of 1971 such as Still life on a Glass Table , French Shop , Beach Umbrella and Rubber Ring Floating in a Swimming Pool . Two images from this period suggest the estrangement between Hockney and Schlesinger. In Sur la terrasse , Hockney portrayed his friend Schlesinger during a stay in Morocco. Schlesinger is shown facing away from the viewer from behind, while he gazes into the distant landscape. In the painting Pool and Steps, Le Nid du Duc , Schlesinger is absent as a person, only his sandals placed on the edge of the pool can be seen. The same swimming pool is later the location of Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) , which Hockney began working on in September 1971.
The idea for Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) came about by chance. Hockney was inspired for the painting by two photographs unintentionally lying side by side on the floor, one with a swimmer in a swimming pool, the other with a person standing looking down. The photographs were taken in Los Angeles in 1966 and were previously unrelated. Hockney had the thought that the man looking down might be watching the swimmer in the pool. The role as a standing figure at the swimming pool was supposed to take over in the painting Schlesinger. The authors Marco Livingstone and Kay Haymer noted that the young man swimming towards Schlesinger in the painting could represent his friend's lost love and his friend's desire for a new partner.
In the original composition, the edges of the pelvis were not designed to be parallel to the edges of the picture, but rather as diagonals and Peter Schlesinger did not appear in profile, but was slightly turned towards the viewer. In the meantime, instead of the landscape, Hockney tried a wall and then a glass wall for the background motif. He worked on the composition for an exceptionally long time and was still dissatisfied with the picture. After six months, he finally discarded the composition. Hockney first went on an extensive trip to Hawaii , Japan and Southeast Asia with artist friend Mark Lancaster . Finally, in the spring of 1972, Hockney decided to repaint the picture, changing the angle of the pool in the process.
In order to prepare the new composition, Hockney traveled to La Garde-Freinet in southern France at the beginning of April 1972 with his studio assistant Mo McDermott and the young photographer John St. Clair . There he found the ideal swimming pool for his painting, a suitable landscape and the right light at the Le Nid du Duc estate of the director Tony Richardson . Hockney photographed the two companions at and in the pool. While Mo McDermott stood next to the pool on behalf of Peter Schlesinger, it was John St. Clair's job to keep jumping into the pool and doing different swimming movements at different speeds. Numerous photographs were taken from this. Back in London, Hockney implemented the scenery in the painting. However, he was dissatisfied with the standing figure. He then asked Peter Schlesinger to model for him again. Both agreed to take pictures in Kensington Gardens , where Hockney photographed his ex-boyfriend with a red jacket and looking down in the desired pose. Hockney then experimented with the recordings in the studio and finally put together a collage of five photos in which the figure of Schlesinger achieved the expression that Hockney found satisfactory. Hockney created the new version of the painting in just two weeks, during which he worked on the picture almost continuously. He was only able to finish the picture the night before it was sent to New York, where it was shown in a Hockney exhibition at the André Emmerich Gallery in May 1972 . Hockney later recalled: “I must admit I loved working on this painting, working with such intensity; it was marvelous doing it, really thrilling. "(Basically: I have to admit that I enjoyed working on this picture, it was done with such intensity; making it was wonderful, really exciting )
The author Nannette Aldred pointed out that Schlesinger was often portrayed naked at the beginning of the relationship with Hockney, while the painter portrayed him in full clothes at the end of the relationship. For Aldred, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) is a highly emotional conversation piece that joins a series of paintings such as American Collectors (Fred & Marcia Weismann) (1968), Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy (1968), Henry Geldzahler and Christopher Scott (1969) and Mr. to Mrs. Clark and Percy (1970–1971). Aldred considers Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) to be the highlight of the series.
Provenance
Shortly after its completion, Hockney gave the painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) to the New York gallery owner André Emmerich . He sold the work to James Astor and his wife, a London-based collector couple. After that, the painting was temporarily offered by William Beadleston 's galleries in New York and later by Stephen Mazoh . In 1983 the art collector David Geffen acquired the picture. 1988–1989 the painting was shown in the major Hockney retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art , the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Tate Gallery in London. David Geffen sold the picture to British entrepreneur Joe Lewis in 1995 . He loaned it to the Hockney retrospective, which was shown in 2017-2018 at Tate Britain in London, the Center Georges-Pompidou in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The painting from the Lewis Collection was auctioned on November 15, 2018 in the New York branch of Christie's auction house. On that occasion, the painting went to an unknown bidder for $ 90,312,500. At the time of sale, the painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) was the most expensive work of art by a living artist ever to be auctioned.
literature
- Stephanie Barron, Maurice Tuchman: David Hockney: a retrospective . Catalog for the Hockney exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Tate Gallery in London 1988/1989, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Loss Angeles and Abrams, New York 1988, ISBN 0- 8109-1167-1 .
- German edition: David Hockney, a retrospective . Dumont, Cologne 1988, ISBN 3-7701-2255-0 .
- David Melia (Ed.): David Hockney . Manchester University Press, Manchester 1995, ISBN 0-7190-4404-9 .
- Marco Livingstone, Kay Heymer: Hockney's portraits and people . Thames and Hudson, London 2003, ISBN 0-500-23812-X .
- Chris Stephens, Andrew Wilson: David Hockney . English-language catalog for the Hockney retrospective at Tate Britain in London, the Center Pompidou in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York 2017/2018, Tate Publishing, London 2017, ISBN 978-1-84976-443-8 .
- Nikos Stangos (Ed.): David Hockney by David Hockney . Thames and Hudson, London 1977, ISBN 0-500-09108-0 .
- Peter Webb: Portrait of David Hockney . McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Toronto 1988, ISBN 0-07-549809-X .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ English title according to the catalog Chris Stephens, Andrew Wilson: David Hockney , p. 88.
- ↑ The German title can be found in the translated exhibition catalog by Stephanie Barron, Maurice Tuchman: David Hockney, a retrospective , p. 23. In this publication, all of Hockney's works described have been translated into German, for example his well-known work A Bigger Splash in Greater Splash . However, these German translations have not caught on in literature and the general Hockney review.
- ^ Stephanie Barron, Maurice Tuchman: David Hockney, a retrospective , pp. 38–39.
- ^ Stephanie Barron, Maurice Tuchman: David Hockney, a retrospective , pp. 38–39.
- ↑ Christopher Knight: Mixed Views: Themes and Motifs in Hockney's Art in Stephanie Barron, Maurice Tuchman: David Hockney, a retrospective , pp. 38–39.
- ^ Stephanie Barron, Maurice Tuchman: David Hockney, a retrospective , pp. 38–39.
- ↑ Christopher Knight: Composite Views: Themes and Motifs in Hockney's Art in Stephanie Barron, Maurice Tuchman: David Hockney: a retrospective , p. 38.
- ↑ "it has often been suggested that the artist is Hockney himself, represented metonymically by the artist's most iconic motif — the image of the pool." Quote from Christopher Knight: Composite Views: Themes and Motifs in Hockney's Art in Stephanie Barron, Maurice Tuchman : David Hockney: a retrospective , p. 38.
- ↑ Chris Stephens, Andrew Wilson: David Hockney , p. 258.
- ^ Image of the painting Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool on the website of the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool
- ↑ Quotation: "a lost, pastoral Arcadia of peace and harmony" from Christopher Knight: Composite Views: Themes and Motifs in Hockney's Art in Stephanie Barron, Maurice Tuchman: David Hockney: a retrospective , p. 38.
- ↑ Christopher Knight: Mixed Views: Themes and Motifs in Hockney's Art in Stephanie Barron, Maurice Tuchman: David Hockney, a retrospective , p. 23.
- ↑ Christopher Knight: Mixed Views: Themes and Motifs in Hockney's Art in Stephanie Barron, Maurice Tuchman: David Hockney, a retrospective , p. 23.
- ^ Quote from David Hockney: "I never thought the swimming pool pictures were at all about mere hedonist pleasure" in Lawrence Weschler: A Visit with David and Stanley Hollywood Hills 1987 in Stephanie Barron, Maurice Tuchman: David Hockney: a retrospective , p. 81 .
- ↑ Lawrence Weschler: A Visit with David and Stanley Hollywood Hills 1987 in Stephanie Barron, Maurice Tuchman: David Hockney: a retrospective , p. 81.
- ↑ Nikos Stangos (Ed.): David Hockney by David Hockney , p. 240.
- ↑ "There was nothing else I wanted to do. It was a way of coping with life. It was very lonely; I was incredibly lonely ”. Quote from Nikos Stangos (ed.): David Hockney by David Hockney , p. 240.
- ^ Illustration of the painting Sur la terrasse from 1971.
- ^ Illustration of the painting Pool and Steps, Le Nid du Duc from 1971.
- ↑ Nikos Stangos (Ed.): David Hockney by David Hockney , p. 240.
- ↑ Marco Livingstone, Kay Heymer: Hockney's portraits and people , p. 112.
- ↑ Nikos Stangos (Ed.): David Hockney by David Hockney , pp. 247–248.
- ^ Peter Webb: Portrait of David Hockney , p. 125.
- ^ Peter Webb: Portrait of David Hockney , p. 125.
- ↑ Illustration of some pictures that Hockney had made in April 1972 in southern France of the swimming John St. Clair.
- ↑ Illustration of the collage put together by Hockney, based on photographs taken by Peter A Schlesinger in Kensington Gardens in April 1972.
- ↑ David Hockney quoted from Peter Webb: Portrait of David Hockney , p. 125.
- ↑ Nanette Aldred figure Paintings and Double Portraits in Paul Melia: David Hockney , pp. 68-88.
- ↑ Nanette Aldred figure Paintings and Double Portraits in Paul Melia: David Hockney , pp. 68-88.
- ↑ Chris Stephens, Andrew Wilson: David Hockney , p. 268.
- ^ Auction result on Christie's website.
- ↑ Hockney painting auctioned for $ 90 million , online item November 16, 2018.
