Henri's Indoor pool, 2019,
Acrylic on canvas, 14 x 11" (36 x 28 cm)
David's paper pool, 2019,
Acrylic on canvas, 14" x 11" (36 x 28 cm)
#storybehindtheart
Henri Matisse
One morning in the summer of 1952, Matisse told his loyal studio assistant, secretary and muse Lydia Delectorskaya that “he wanted to see divers,” so they set out to a favorite pool. Suffering under the “blazing sun,” they returned home, where Matisse declared, “I will make myself my own pool.”
Helped by Lydia who supervised and helped with his paper cuts, he created The Swimming Pool in his dining room, which will be his first and only site specific cut out.
Picasso, living nearby would regularly visit Matisse, who was invalid.
David Hockney
In the summer of 1978, David Hockney worked for 6 weeks at Tyler Graphics run by the master printer Kenneth Tyler. He discovered paper pulp and was so excited by this new medium that he came back to the subject of pools that he had not touched for years. Just like Matisse discovered a new way of creating with the paper cuts. Hockney’s comments are based on his quote “I love new mediums (..). I think mediums can (…) excite you: they always let you do something in a different way, even if you take the same subject.”
Kenneth Tyler, worked with the best artists of his day with the motto that “great prints are made only by great artists”.
Andy Warhol who took the photo of David Hockney, teases him about it.
Sources: MOMA