Pool: Last News

Welcome back to our queer film retrospective, “A Gay Old Time.” In this week’s column, as summer winds down, we’re taking one last dip in the pool with the 1973 David Hockney documentary A Bigger Splash.What goes into the making of a piece of art? When we’re reading a novel, or looking at a painting, or watching a movie, are we also looking at an extension of the person or people who created them? And is the artistic process part of the finished product, or is that meant to stand alone on its own, regardless of the context in which it was made?Although most of these questions probably need their own pages-long dissertation—and even then a concrete answer may never be reached—they are helpful in extending our understanding of the relationship between art and artist. This week, we’re diving into the 1973 biographical documentary A Bigger Splash, which follows landmark pop artist David Hockney’s slow burning breakup with his partner over a three-year period, and the effect it had on his artistic method.

Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.The film does not intend to serve as a comprehensive account of Hockney’s life, but it is a rather removed and naturalistic fly-on-the-wall record of some of his most emotionally turbulent years, and the ways in which he used his art both as a distraction and an outlet. As one of the first documentaries to openly and honestly depict the gay lifestyle and social circles in big urban cities like London, New York City and San Francisco, it also serves as a unique time capsule that shows just how tight the links between friendship, romance, art and gay identity were back then.A Bigger Splash, directed by Jack Kazan, follows David Hockney from 1970 to 1973, in the years during and immediately following the separation from his longtime muse and romantic partner, author and model Peter Schlesinger.