Los Angeles Interior

David Hockney

Los Angeles Interior was drawn by David Hockney in 1967, at the same time as one of his most iconic California paintings, A Bigger Splash, held by the Tate. Hockney was teaching at the University of California in Berkeley, and spent much of his time drawing interiors, street scenes of low modernist buildings and the swimming pools which were ubiquitous to every property in Hollywood. Los Angeles Interior, in common with many of Hockney's works of this time, is unpopulated. The artist chose to depict art collectors' houses, often without the collectors appearing in the compositions, or empty pools and gardens. Even A Bigger Splash has no trace of the diver who has just entered the water.

Bedroom and 1059 Balboa Blvd., drawn in the same year and employing the same technique of strongly scored coloured crayon in large areas of undisturbed colour, both relate closely to Los Angeles Interior. The rectangular green block, possibly a wardrobe or screen, sits in stark contrast to the main horizontal of the bare-mattressed bed which cuts across it, and lends the work a strong sense of perspective. This device is employed in several works, including A Bigger Splash itself, the diagonal diving board standing well out against the oblong area of turquoise that defines the swimming pool.

Artist
David Hockney (b.1937)
Title
Los Angeles Interior
Medium
Pencil and coloured crayon on paper
Date
1967
Inscriptions
Signed with the initials 'DH' lower right and inscribed and dated 'Los Angeles 67'
Size
40.2 x 49.2 cm : 16 1/8 x 19 3/4 in.
Provenance
Kasmin Ltd, London; Piccadilly Gallery, London; Richard Salmon, London; Private Collection, London
Exhibited
William Beadleston Inc, New York 'David Hockney in America', Nov 8th - Dec 10th 1983, no. 6
Literature
'72 Drawings by David Hockney: chosen by the artist', Jonathan Cape Ltd, London 1971, illus. no. 30
Reference
CC13-26
Status
Sold

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