The undersigned legal artiste appreciates the painter David Hockney; he has attended a seminar by Hockney on his book Secret Knowledge, which book he devoured, and he likes Hockney's "California" paintings. This one is a particularly pregnant painting, enigmatic, for even at a first casual look the painting reads oddly. The jacketed figure looks pissed. He leans slightly forward in what could be an aggressive stance, his left hand could be semi-balled as in a semi-fist, his lips are pursed; Red Jacket, who could be the "artist" in the painting, could be a younger Hockney (the figure swimming appears to have a beard which to the understanding of the undersigned Hockney never had). Red Jacket could be a stalker--Hockney is a 'Mo--or he could have had a quarrel with his tighty-whitey amour swimming below, apparently oblivious to Red Jacket's enigmatic intent. Red Jacket could be about to kick Tighty Whitey in the teeth when the latter surfaces. Could be. All of those things could be.
However. But. A super close-up of Red Jacket's eyes...
...reveals that they are shut as if he were napping. Unless David Hockney's skills as a draftsman were not up to snuff in 1972 those are not the eyes of one gazing down, those are the eyes of one napping. Which throws the whole fucking read of this painting off. Peut-être that slight lean forward is not aggressive t'all but is a somnambulant moment before Red Jacket pitches into the pool? Oh that card, David Hockney!
Très énigmatique, no? Oui, oui. Tres expensive too for Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures was sold by Christie's yesterday for ~$90 mil, "shattering" the price record for a painting by a living artist. Too enigmatic for moi.
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