The Great American Pool: Hockney and the Visible Gay Male Figure
In the second half of the 20th century, the swimming pool was recognized as the quintessential sign of middle-class success, indicating financial stability and the luxury of leisure.
British artist David Hockney took this familiar setting as a stage for normalizing the presence of the gay male figure in American culture. In the 1960s and 1970s, the general public knew very little about gay life because it was rarely shown in mainstream images. By combining a widely known structure with a mostly hidden subject, Hockney presented gay men as part of the same landscape as everyone else. The images remain outwardly calm, yet each is a radical act.
My digital collages extend Hockney's assertion in an homage to his work. Where Hockney often showed the gay male figure alone or as a pair, the figures in my collages appear in groups and crowds around the pool. They are openly gay, with some embracing and kissing.
Where Hockney's paintings say we are here, my collages add and we are everywhere.
As we always have been.
