How to Talk to Children About Modern Art - Softcover

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16. A Bigger Splash.

David Hockney, born 1937

1967

Acrylic on canvas

2m 34cm x 2m 44cm

Tate Gallery, London

5-7 YEAR OLDS

I can almost hear it go splash!

That's exactly what this painting is about - the movement and above all the noise that goes with it. It is a splash!

There isn't anyone in the painting.

The only person there is under the water. They've already dived in … and the water is still mid-splash. We got there too late to see them, or we were looking the other way and missed it.

You can't see anything in the water.

Even if you look into the water you can't see anything. It's too soon as everything is still hidden by the splash. The pool must be very deep. You realise also that the painter didn't want to show the water as transparent or reflective, but preferred to show it as completely opaque.

It's a very big swimming pool.

It looks all the bigger because we can't see the edges in the painting. It seems as though the pool is limitless, even if you know that's not possible. You get the feeling of being in a huge open space, which is much nicer than somewhere where you are crammed up close to the neighbours. David Hockney liked painting pleasant images that make the viewer feel relaxed.

It's well drawn.

Hockney worked with a lot of precision, using a roller so that the surfaces of his paintings are lovely and smooth. He even used strips of tape to make sure the edges where two colours meet each other are sharply defined. The lack of distracting details also helps the scene to feel very calm.



8-10 YEAR OLDS

You can see other buildings in the reflection in the background.

This detail proves that David Hockney was perfectly capable of painting reflections even though he didn't paint any in the pool. Here, he used them to suggest the surrounding villas, like the one in the painting. The buildings must belong to quite rich people. The large windows of the house let you imagine the amazing views they must have, but they don't give anything away about the interior of the house. This is a world protected from prying eyes.

Somebody's put a chair by the pool.

If the chair wasn't there, we might think that the diver was an intruder. But the chair lets us know that the house is lived in. It's a folding 'director's chair' which might suggest that the artist is directing his painting like a director does a film. So Hockney is letting us know that there is an element of fantasy here - that's it's 'make-believe'.

Where is it?

There's a blue sky, palm trees and a swimming pool - so it's somewhere that's sunny all year round… The scene immediately suggests California in the USA. Maybe it's southern California, not far from Hollywood, where the big film studios are. Hockney had discovered Los Angeles four years earlier and he liked it so much there that he returned there every year.

Why didn't he include any people?

The painting welcomes us in and we immediately feel at home because there is no-one else around. It's like going into a hotel room. Even the invisible diver seems to invite us to follow them into the water. In fact, the viewer is the real character in this picture.

It all looks brand new.

The lack of any surface texture conveys the sense of a clean, brand new place. The picture doesn't have any trace of the past about it - no memories. It's a bit like in cartoons. Hockney is showing us a world where everything is in its right place and nothing grows old. It's an image of an ultramodern paradise.

It looks like an advert.

Yes. In actual fact Hockney was inspired