David Hockney, Santa Monica Boulevard, 1978–1980, Acrylic on canvas, 218.44 x 609.6 cm, The David Hockney Foundation.
This is an acrylic on canvas painting by artist David Hockney. It was created between 1978 to 1980. Its dimensions are 218.44 by 609.6 cm. Hockney captures the sundrenched vista of an iconic Los Angeles street from the perspective of someone looking out the window of a car driving down the boulevard. He seeks to represent the city in the point of view from which it is most often experienced.
The rectangular-shaped canvas depicts a boulevard. Looking at the painting from left to right, there are five people and several buildings represented on the length of the street. Farthest to the left is a person with a trolley facing left, almost out of frame. They are standing in front of a car dealership lot, with a soft pink wall behind. A palm tree is depicted in front of the dealership, but elements of the palm tree appear missing or incomplete. The palm's trunk is complete but no leaves sprout from it. There are palm tree leaves peaking out from behind the pink wall, with shadows reflected upon it. Below, the shadow of the palm tree shows leaves, while the painted tree itself does not.
Red, white, and blue pennants hang in lines above the dealership lot. A red muscle car sits in the lot, with the number 2499 painted in yellow on the front window. To the right of the dealership lot, occupying the centre of the painting, is a single-story bright yellow building with teal-coloured shutters pulled all the way down, obscuring the three large windows. There are also colourful triangular pennants strung across the top left side of the trio of windows. On the right side of the building is an open entrance without a door, leading into a dark, shadowed interior with speckled red and black flooring.
There are three different people standing in front of the yellow building. One person, furthest to the left, leans against a light pole and faces to the right. The figure has long hair that goes down past their shoulders, and they are wearing a white visor and a blue short-sleeved shirt with red and white stripes. They are also wearing mid-thigh blue shorts with red trim, and bright white over the calf high-top socks with two red stripes near the top. The outfit is completed with simple gray shoes with white laces. Directly to the right of this person is another figure, with thick black hair in a shiny bowl haircut, walking down the street in the direction of the dealership lot. They are mid-stride, wearing a flared purple suit and thick-framed white glasses, and carrying a blue handbag in their left hand. The last person is standing near the entrance of the yellow building, facing to the right. They are wearing a white ball cap with red trim, a white tee-shirt, and blue jeans. They have short black and gray hair. Their left arm is gestured up with their thumb pointing backwards to the left.
Further along the boulevard, on the right of the painting, is a soft pink building with two low façades: one brick and the other stonework. Like the others, the front of this building is strung with colourful triangular pennants. Looking closely, several of the pennants are traced but not coloured in, giving an unfinished or incomplete impression. These low façades are separated by an open doorway, with the brick façade to the left of the entrance, and the stone façade to the right. In the middle of the pink building, a person leans on the left side of the door frame. This person has black and gray hair, and is wearing a white tank top and blue jeans as well as white sneakers with three blue stripes.
Further to the right of the pink building, we see the front of a 1970s camper style van parked on the road. The van is facing to the left. The bottom half of the van is gray and the top half is white, with long yellow, white, and blue stripes between the two halves. There are three palm tree shadows cast across the full length of road.
On the Street Where You Live is the section in which we find this artwork. The street is a prevalent subject in our everyday lives and personal documentation that can be both mundane and exciting.