David Hockney's most famous painting, A Bigger Splash, has become a visual motif in gay domestic life. Reproductions of this work, which captures the moment after a person jumps off a diving board into a still cyan blue swimming pool, are found in countless gay households. The author recounts owning a cushion cover of the painting after seeing it at Hockney's 2017 Tate Britain retrospective.
Challenging Homophobia Through Art
As an out gay artist who depicted same-sex desire long before male homosexuality was partially decriminalised in England and Wales, Hockney challenged homophobia within the artistic establishment and beyond. He did so not through highly sexualised imagery like Robert Mapplethorpe or activist themes like Keith Haring, but by reshaping ideas of beauty, intimacy, and desire.
Early Expressions of Queer Identity
In 1961, while a student at London's Royal College of Art, Hockney painted We Two Boys Together Clinging, one of the earliest expressions of queer identity in British art. The childlike painting shows two figures embracing, with a title derived from a Walt Whitman poem, obscure enough to avoid censorship laws at the time.
In Cleaning Teeth, Early Evening (10pm) W11 (1962), Hockney used suggestive imagery of two red Colgate toothpaste tubes shooting toothpaste into each other's mouths, leaving little to the imagination for those 'in the know' while maintaining innocence for the masses. This early coding became deeply embedded in queer culture.
Freedom in Los Angeles
When Hockney moved to Los Angeles in 1964, he found greater freedom to live openly as a gay man. His work portrayed California as a fantasy land of swimming pools, green lawns, palm trees, and Hollywood hills. Paintings like Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool (1966), featuring a nude young man with his bare cheeks as the focal point, were highly controversial at the time. Other works, such as California (1965) and Portrait of an Artist (Pool With Two Figures), depicted men in intimate, domestic settings.
Revolutionary Domesticity
Hockney's paintings are revolutionary not just for portraying male nudity and desire, but scenes of domesticity: men swimming, showering, and brushing their teeth together. At a time when being gay was criminalised and defined by physical acts, Hockney's work underlined that gay intimacy and friendship could be beautiful, full of pleasure rather than loneliness or tragedy.
Queer Identity and Decorative Arts
Hockney provided a meeting point between queer identity, fine art, and decorative arts. His paintings were overtly gay and unashamedly decorative, featuring patterned armchairs and floral shower curtains. Influenced by his surroundings and his friendship with fashion designer Ossie Clark, Hockney proved that 'decorative' should not be a dirty word or reserved for low art.
Achieving Gay Visibility
Unlike gay artists such as Keith Haring and David Wojnarowicz, Hockney positioned himself first and foremost as an artist, though he threatened to cancel a major exhibition in protest against Section 28 in 1988. His story is grounded in achieving gay visibility in establishment spaces, both in the UK and internationally, through major exhibitions and auction records.
Enduring Legacy
Hockney's legacy is grounded in a hard-to-describe aesthetic that radiates a gay sensibility and a thrilling sense of freedom. From two men floating in a pool to portraits of his pet dachshunds or bright Yorkshire landscapes, his work carries a queer sensibility. Throughout his career, Hockney explored many styles and mediums, from collage to video, print-making, public art, and iPad drawings. This reinvention, deeply embedded in queer culture, makes his work enduring. Hockney didn't just see the beauty in gay life; he shared it with the world.
