Diving Board with Shadow (Paper Pools 15): Paper Pool work by David Hockney

  • Back to: Paper Pool David Hockney's Diving Board with Shadow (Paper Pool 15), 1978, is a striking work from the...

    Diving board with Shadow, Paper Pool 15, 1978

    Coloured and pressed paper pulp, 72 x 85.5 in

    Unique work

    ©David Hockney

    Back to: Paper Pool

     

    David Hockney's Diving Board with Shadow (Paper Pool 15), 1978, is a striking work from the celebrated Paper Pools series, demonstrating the artist's fascination with light, perspective and the visual complexity of water. Created in coloured, pressed paper pulp, the composition is dominated by a bright yellow diving board stretching across the upper half of the image, contrasting with the rich blues of the swimming pool below. Hockney carefully balances areas of calm water with sections animated by shimmering reflections, while the diving board's elongated shadow cuts diagonally through the pool, creating a strong sense of depth. The geometry of the surrounding pool deck and manicured green lawn further reinforces the clean, modern aesthetic associated with Southern California.

     

    Produced in collaboration with Kenneth Tyler at Tyler Graphics, Diving Board with Shadow (Paper Pool 15) exemplifies David Hockney's innovative approach to papermaking and printmaking. By building the image from layers of coloured paper pulp rather than traditional printing inks, Hockney achieved a richly textured surface that enhances the illusion of light reflecting across the water. The contrast between the deep blue shadow and the sparkling white highlights creates a compelling study of transparency and movement, despite the absence of any human figure.

  • "When you photograph a splash, you’re freezing a moment and it becomes something else. I realise that a splash could never be seen this way in real life, it happens too quickly"

     

    - David Hockney

    The Paper Pools series represents one of David Hockney's most technically ambitious bodies of work, requiring a process that combined traditional papermaking with artistic experimentation. Working alongside master printer Kenneth Tyler and the craftsmen at Tyler Graphics, Hockney carefully considered how individual areas of coloured paper pulp could be layered, shaped and textured to recreate the appearance of water, concrete, grass and shadow. Instead of relying on brushstrokes or printed ink, colour became part of the paper itself, producing subtle variations in tone and a tactile surface that changes under different lighting conditions.