David Hockney

The surface of the pool splits and the spray hangs still. In A Bigger Splash the diver is nowhere to be seen. Hockney spent two weeks painting half a second. He grew up in the grey of Bradford, went to Los Angeles in 1964, and moved that light and colour onto a flat surface. The pool, the lawn and the plate glass became signs for California itself. He never stays with one medium — grids of Polaroids joined into collage, fax drawings, iPad paintings. Lately he has been transferring the four seasons of Yorkshire and Normandy onto very large canvases.