David Hockney was a painter of pools. I followed him into art's deep end

David Hockney, known as a painter of pools, has continued to shape how the art world and the public view water and California life, even after his death in London last month. The article traces his move to Los Angeles in 1964, noting his excitement as he arrived and completed his first pool paintings the year he settled in America. It describes works tied to his relationships, including “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with two Figures)” (1972), finished after his break-up with Peter Schlesinger, who appears by the pool edge as another figure swims beneath the surface. It also recalls the auction milestone for a pool-related painting that sold in 2018 for US$90 million, then a record for a living artist. The piece links Hockney’s style to California’s “dancing lines” on water, referencing his reported 1988 painting at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’s Tropicana pool. It concludes by emphasizing that pool chemicals and time have altered the experience of viewing his water imagery.