C
ast in front of an expansive bright blue sky, baked in sun, the scene in David Hockney’s House, Olympic Boulevard appears almost dreamlike. The luminous blue sky evokes the warm sun of a California afternoon; sharp green hedges punctuate the foreground; a thinly veiled shadow grazes the upper level of the house. Immediately locating the viewer in the specificity of the California suburban ideal, Hockney renders a palm tree in the center of the composition. Suspended between reality, memory, and invention, this uncannily familiar glimpse of mid-century suburbia is amongst the earliest works that Hockney created after moving to Los Angeles in the mid 1960s. Hockney created an entirely unique response to dimensionality and the illusion of space, which would be manifested in a distinct repertoire of thematic exploration, including the ideal of California life.
"Whenever I left England, colors got stronger in the pictures. California always affected me with color. Because of the light you see more color, people wear more colorful clothes, you notice it, it doesn’t look garish: there is more color in life here."
Upon traveling from England to the West Coast of the United States for the first t.mes in 1963, Hockney was astounded by California’s relentless sunshine and the vibrant coloration of its environment. Hockney remarked of the experience: “As I flew over San Bernardino and looking down and saw the swimming pools and the houses and everything and the sun, I was more thrilled than I’ve ever been arriving at any other city” (The artist quoted in John Albert Walker, Cultural Offensive: America’s Impact on British Art Since 1945, United Kingdom, 1998). For the artist, California symbolized a newfound personal and creative freedom that propelled his career. House, Olympic Boulevard perfectly encapsulates Hockney’s fascination - his quiet exploration of the quotidian in Los Angeles and the distinctive color palette of California which would dramatically impact his work in the coming years.
Evidence of the artist’s ongoing dialogue with abstraction and exploration of perspective and dimensionality, Hockney’s drawing is dominated by straight edges and simplified shapes. Hockney builds the composition from a series of chromatic planes in blue, green, and butter yellow, and bold, dynamic lines which accentuate the inherent flatness and two-dimensionality of the drawing. House, Olympic Boulevard captures an immediacy and intimacy intrinsic to Hockney’s oeuvre. By framing the central composition with graphite lines, Hockney creates a vignette which suggests the instantaneousness of a Polaroid photograph. Hockney masterfully subverts the viewers’ expectations of a single-perspective picture plane, constructing a beguiling illusionistic world, strikingly more entrancing and mesmerizing than actuality.
