Water can also be symbolic, especially when featured in still life or figurative paintings. In both literature and art, water is considered the universal symbol for change – it is forever flowing, and can take any course. Water is also used to symbolise purity and cleansing; this is more apparent in historical, ancient and renaissance pieces.
Water can alter the entire mood of a representational piece depending on how it is depicted. For example, in The Birth of Venus by Botticelli. The sea is calming and appears to be warming, providing the entire artwork with an overall feeling of serenity, calm and awe. If the sea had been depicted as wavy and frantic; the aesthetic, mood and emotional qualities would be entirely different.
Water itself holds a number of symbolic meanings. It is often used as a symbol of purity and tranquillity, but it can also be tempestuous and forbidding, impossible to control and unreliable. In Hockney’s A Bigger Splash we see both elements of water. The pool itself is tranquil and unmoving, an appealing shade of turquoise that looks welcoming and inviting. The splash adds an element of movement and action, an indicator that someone is underneath that water, consumed by it’s blue surface and buried beneath it’s calm exterior.
Hockney’s pool paintings often depict a Californian land of luxury and acceptance – a utopic, anything-goes world where wealthy people luxuriate in their surroundings. But history tells us that at the same moment in history, public pools were experiencing racial segregation and tension. Open homosexuality was still taboo and the push for civil rights was raging.
Water is often associated with the ability to wash away our sins and leave us pure and refreshed. In religious ceremonies, water is often used to purify us, ready for a transformation or new beginning.