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Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) is a large acrylic-on-canvas pop art painting by British artist David Hockney, completed in May 1972. It measures 7 ft × 10 ft (2.1 m × 3.0 m),[1] and depicts two figures: one swimming underwater and one clothed male figure looking down at the swimmer. In November 2018, it sold for US$90.3 million, at that time the highest price ever paid at auction for a painting by a living artist.

Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)
Artist	David Hockney
Year	1972 (1972)
Medium	Acrylic on canvas
Movement	Pop art
Dimensions	7 ft × 10 ft (2.1 m × 3.0 m)
Location	Private collection

Background

Hockney visited California for the first time in January 1964 after a successful first solo exhibition at the John Kasmin gallery.[2] The United States fascinated him, and Los Angeles in particular, partly because of the influence of Hollywood cinema but also because of the modernist building Case Study House #21. As a gay man, he was also a fan of the beefcake magazine Physique Pictorial, which was published in Los Angeles.[3] "I instinctively knew I was going to like it," Hockney said, "and as I flew over San Bernardino and saw the swimming pools and the houses and everything and the sun, I was more thrilled than I have ever been in arriving in any city."[2]

Hockney painted the first of his pool paintings, California Art Collector in 1964, and the swimming pool became a recurring theme in his paintings, such as Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool (1966, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) and most notably A Bigger Splash (1967, Tate Gallery).[2] He painted a series of double portraits from 1968 to 1977, including American Collectors (Fred and Marcia Weisman) (1968, Art Institute of Chicago), and Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy (1971, Tate Gallery).

Composition

This work brings together two of Hockney's themes from his paintings of the late 1960s and early 1970s: the swimming pool, and the double portrait. It depicts a male figure in white trunks swimming breaststroke underwater, and the painter Peter Schlesinger, Hockney's former lover and muse, fully clothed and standing at the edge of the pool looking down at the swimmer.[4] The painting is set in southern France, near Saint-Tropez.[4] In characteristic Hockney style, the foreground is simplified and flattened with a view of tree-clad hills in the background.

The composition was inspired by a serendipitous combination of photographs that Hockney noticed on his studio floor: one of a man swimming underwater, taken in California in 1966, and the other of a man standing looking at the ground. Juxtaposed, it appeared as if the standing person was looking at the swimmer.[5] Hockney's relationship with Schlesinger had ended abruptly in 1971, following a fight in Cadaqués. "By showing another young man swimming towards Peter, the artist acknowledges lost love and his boyfriend’s desire for a new partner".[6] The painting can be viewed as fitting into a European tradition since the Renaissance of depicting the nude bathing, washing off the stain of pollution amid the peace of nature.[1]

Hockney worked on the painting for four months in late 1971, but dissatisfied with the composition, in particular with the angle of the pool, abandoned the work and started afresh.[5] He then travelled for several months with Mark Lancaster, and returned to the work in early 1972. The year 1972 was a very productive year for Hockney, as he threw himself into his work to escape from his unhappiness, often working 14 or 15 hours a day. Around the same time, he was working on his (unfinished) double portrait of George Lawson and Wayne Sleep (1972-5, Tate).

In April 1972, Hockney flew to the south of France to better visualise the figure swimming underwater, using the pool at film director Tony Richardson's villa at Le Nid du Duc near Saint-Tropez to do so. Hockney's studio assistant, Mo McDermott, recreated the pose of the downcast man, while a young photographer, John St Clair, was the swimmer.[7] Hockney took hundreds of photographs based on his original composition.[3]

Back at his London studio, Hockney assembled the photos along with photographs of Peter Schlesinger taken in Kensington Gardens wearing the same pink jacket.[3][8] Hockney worked on the painting for two weeks, working 18-hour days, completing and varnishing it only the night before it was due to be shipped to New York for the exhibition at André Emmerich Gallery.[3] It was first shown in the exhibition Paintings and Drawings, which ran from 13 to 31 May 1972.[5][9]

Hockney said of the painting, "I must admit I loved working on that picture, [...] working with such intensity; it was marvellous doing it, really thrilling"[3]

The creation of the painting and the breakdown of Hockney's relationship with Schlesinger were featured in the semi-fictional 1974 documentary A Bigger Splash, named after the 1967 Hockney painting.[4]

Sale history

The painting was originally sold to James Astor and his wife in 1972 for $18,000 (equivalent to $117,000 in 2021[10]). Six months later it was sold on for $50,000 (equivalent to $324,000 in 2021[10]).[11] It was acquired in 1983 by the American billionaire David Geffen, who sold it to British billionaire Joe Lewis in 1995 at an undisclosed price.[9]

It was included in the Hockney exhibition, which toured the Tate Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Centre Georges Pompidou from February 2017 to February 2018.[12]

On 15 November 2018, in nine minutes of bidding, it was sold to an unknown buyer for $90.3 million at Christie's auction house in New York City, setting an auction record for a living artist.[13][14][15][16] The sale broke the previous record for a living artist of $58 million for Jeff Koons' Balloon Dog (Orange) in 2013 and more than tripled the record for a work by Hockney, $28.5 million for Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica set in May 2018.[17] The highest known prices for a painting by a living artist in private sales are for two paintings by Jasper Johns (born 1930): in 2006, Kenneth C. Griffin bought Johns' False Start for about $80 million ($108 million in 2021) from David Geffen,[18] and in 2010 Steven A. Cohen bought Johns' 1958 Flag for around $110 million (equivalent to $137 million in 2021) from Leo Castelli's son.[19]

Pop culture influence

• In the American adult animated television series BoJack Horseman a painting in Bojack's house is based on Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures).[20]
• The cover art of the Mr. Oizo album Stade 2, by the artist So Me, is a deconstructed reinterpretation of Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures).[21]

See also

• List of most expensive paintings

References

На других языках

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[de] Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)

Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)[1] (deutsch: Porträt eines Künstlers – Pool mit zwei Figuren)[2] ist ein in Acrylfarbe auf Leinwand gemaltes Bild des britischen Malers David Hockney. Das 213,5 cm hohe und 305 cm breite Gemälde gehört zu den Hauptwerken des Malers aus seiner frühen Werkphase. Im Bild zeigt Hockney einen Swimmingpool vor südfranzösischer Landschaft, an dessen Rand der Künstler Peter Schlesinger steht und einen unter Wasser schwimmenden Mann beobachtet. Das Werk markiert das Ende von Hockneys fünfjähriger Beziehung mit Schlesinger, der zuvor sein Liebhaber und seine Muse war. Die Entstehung des Bildes ist durch Fotografien, Aussagen der Beteiligten und durch einen Kinofilm dokumentiert. Das Gemälde befindet sich in einer Privatsammlung.

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- [en] Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)

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[fr] Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)

Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (Portrait d'un artiste) est une peinture de pop art de l'artiste britannique David Hockney, achevée en mai 1972.

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[ru] Портрет художника (Бассейн с двумя фигурами)

«Портрет художника (Бассейн с двумя фигурами)» (англ. Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)) — картина в жанре поп-арт, созданная британским художником Дэвидом Хокни. Крупноразмерная работа (213,5 × 305 см) выполнена акрилом по холсту,[1] на ней изображены две фигуры — пловец под поверхностью воды в бассейне и наблюдающий за ним стоя у бассейна одетый мужчина. Картина была завершена в мае 1972 года. В ноябре 2018 года она была продана за 90,3 млн долларов США, что стало самой высокой аукционной ценой за произведение живущего художника.

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