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Diving into the gay scene of yesteryear in the seductive David Hockney doc ‘A Bigger Splash’
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.