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polity united states cold warconcept:era contemporary

A Bigger Splash

Acrylic on canvas by David Hockney, 1967. One of the most iconic British paintings of the 20th century. Depicts a Los Angeles swimming pool in the instant after a diver has entered the water; the splash — rendered with precise, flat acrylic technique — is the only sign of movement in an otherwise eerily still suburban landscape. Now in the permanent collection of Tate Modern, London, purchased 1981.

Scholarly Significance

Anchor the Hockney cluster with A Bigger Splash — the iconic 1967 acrylic, the most recognised British painting of the postwar era and a defining image of Los Angeles leisure culture.

Notes

  • ·Hockney made A Bigger Splash in two weeks in 1967. He based the splash itself on a photograph from a book on swimming pool construction — he was fascinated by the paradox of painting a two-week canvas of a fraction-of-a-second event.
  • ·The painting deliberately employs flat, non-gestural acrylic technique — a conscious rejection of Abstract Expressionist painterliness and an embrace of the smooth surfaces of commercial illustration.
  • ·It is the third in a series of 'splash' paintings: Little Splash (1966), The Splash (1966), A Bigger Splash (1967).
  • ·The Hollywood Hills house depicted is adapted from a Julius Shulman architectural photograph of a Case Study House. The yellow diving board is a Hockney invention.
  • ·The documentary film A Bigger Splash (1974, dir. Jack Hazan) takes its name from this painting.
  • ·The work has become a cultural shorthand for 1960s California, sun, and leisure; widely reproduced as poster art and referenced in fashion and advertising.