The Urban Swimmer considers the cultural legacy of the 1968 Burt Lancaster movie...
David Hockney isn't the only artist who seems fascinated by the legacy of the Swimming Pool. The Irish video artist Fergal Macarthy was fascinated by the film of The Swimmer, and choose to recreate Ned's journey across contemporary Dublin; see some highlights here. Read about his creation on his blog here.
Above you can see Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich's work: Swimming Pool. One installation of which is in permanent residence at The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.
There's also of course, a strong sexual side to The Swimmer's imagery. Burt Lancaster astonishingly was 52 when he made the movie, but he seems ageless in the role. Look at this 2006 L'Hommo fashion shoot by photographer Steven Klein here. Yes, definitely Derek Zoolander territory.
Inevitably it is an iconography that goes full circle, the 1960s imagery of suburban America, fed back to us in movies like Tom Ford's A Single Man, and trend setting (or is it re-setting?) TV shows like Mad Men.
Backyard pools, a show of flesh, aspiration and despair all continue to reflect around our culture like the show of light on water...
The John Cheever short story from which this blog takes it's name, is probably better known in it's iconic movie form. The story of Ned Merrill seems one that continues to fascinate...
Ned Merrill is an athletic, attractive and successful man in his middle years. The character is arrogant, but is some sense still a seemingly heroic figure. Neddy has stayed over after a boozy Saturday night party at a neighbour's house and decides that he will travel home, across the county "swimming" in the pools and ponds of his acquaintances and neighbours. An afternoon cross country jaunt through affluent suburban America, walking and swimming a journey home.
That's what I think of GLL pool fees.
However as the story evolves, and Neddy swims the "Lucinda River" we realise that Neddy's life is not as glowing as it initially seems. As his day progresses we realise that Neddy has been a womaniser, that his marriage has collapsed, there is the suggestion of some sort of financial scandal, hints of alcoholism and possibly even the idea that our "hero" has had some kind of breakdown, possibly he has been institutionalised. By the end of Cheever's tale, when Ned reaches a home now locked up and empty the reader is not even sure if these events have even happened on the same day, or if these are the mad ramblings of the anchor-less Neddy.
Some view the tale as almost experimental science fiction; others as a sort of critique of the American dream - the darkness beneath the sunny dream of middle-class, suburban opulence. If you want to read an interesting, though slightly pretentious look at the psychopathology of The Swimmer have a look at this Tintin Törncrantz blog; yes he probably does where a black polo neck.
Some view the tale as almost experimental science fiction; others as a sort of critique of the American dream - the darkness beneath the sunny dream of middle-class, suburban opulence. If you want to read an interesting, though slightly pretentious look at the psychopathology of The Swimmer have a look at this Tintin Törncrantz blog; yes he probably does where a black polo neck.
It's an unsettling enough tale, but something about the iconography of the Burt Lancaster 1968 film (it was shot in 1966) continues to fuel popular culture. Have a look at this 1992 Jeans advert:
Steve was bashful about his Mutant Ninja Turtles leg tattoo.
In advertising it isn't theft, it's homage...honest. As some bright spark on YouTube points out, the last ten seconds of the commercial appear to have been further lifted from the diving scenes in Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia. Yes that's right, someone sold you jeans based on a story about a man imploding in the American dream and some imagery from a famous Nazi. This is considered an advertising classic. Now go to the dictionary and look up the word irony.
The world of advertising aside though, there is something incredibly strong about the image of the swimming pool in American popular iconography. Think of Ben (Dustin Hoffman) crouching in scuba suit at the bottom of the pool in The Graduate; or David Hockey's American swimming pool images. The suburban American swimming pool is a statement of both opulence and isolated despair.
It was with some interest then that The Urban Swimmer noticed that the Palm Springs Art Museum is currently hosting an exhibition entitled Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1982. TUS came across a review of this exhibition in the LA Times, where you can see some great photographs by the likes of Slim Aarons, Mel Roberts, Lawrence Schiller and Ed Ruscha.
The exhibition focuses specifically on LA and southern California with perhaps inevitably an interest in celebrity and Hollywood. Of course Hollywood is a part of the iconography of American aspiration, but The Urban Swimmer wonders if in focusing so much on the west coast the exhibition hasn't missed a trick.
The film of The Swimmer was shot mostly around Westport, CT (the Cheever story does not give a location, though his stories were usually set in the New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts suburbs). On the other side of the Long Island Sound sits the home of that other great, and older fictional chaser of the American dream: J Gatsby, who meets his sad end in...a swimming pool.
There was a faint, barely perceptible movement of the water as the fresh flow from one end urged its way toward the drain at the other. With little ripples that were hardly the shadows of waves, the laden mattress moved irregularly down the pool. A small gust of wind that scarcely corrugated the surface was enough to disturb its accidental course with its accidental burden. The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing, like the leg of compass, a thin red circle in the water.
It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete.
It was with some interest then that The Urban Swimmer noticed that the Palm Springs Art Museum is currently hosting an exhibition entitled Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1982. TUS came across a review of this exhibition in the LA Times, where you can see some great photographs by the likes of Slim Aarons, Mel Roberts, Lawrence Schiller and Ed Ruscha.
The exhibition focuses specifically on LA and southern California with perhaps inevitably an interest in celebrity and Hollywood. Of course Hollywood is a part of the iconography of American aspiration, but The Urban Swimmer wonders if in focusing so much on the west coast the exhibition hasn't missed a trick.
The film of The Swimmer was shot mostly around Westport, CT (the Cheever story does not give a location, though his stories were usually set in the New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts suburbs). On the other side of the Long Island Sound sits the home of that other great, and older fictional chaser of the American dream: J Gatsby, who meets his sad end in...a swimming pool.
There was a faint, barely perceptible movement of the water as the fresh flow from one end urged its way toward the drain at the other. With little ripples that were hardly the shadows of waves, the laden mattress moved irregularly down the pool. A small gust of wind that scarcely corrugated the surface was enough to disturb its accidental course with its accidental burden. The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing, like the leg of compass, a thin red circle in the water.
It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete.
David Hockney isn't the only artist who seems fascinated by the legacy of the Swimming Pool. The Irish video artist Fergal Macarthy was fascinated by the film of The Swimmer, and choose to recreate Ned's journey across contemporary Dublin; see some highlights here. Read about his creation on his blog here.
Above you can see Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich's work: Swimming Pool. One installation of which is in permanent residence at The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.
There's also of course, a strong sexual side to The Swimmer's imagery. Burt Lancaster astonishingly was 52 when he made the movie, but he seems ageless in the role. Look at this 2006 L'Hommo fashion shoot by photographer Steven Klein here. Yes, definitely Derek Zoolander territory.
Inevitably it is an iconography that goes full circle, the 1960s imagery of suburban America, fed back to us in movies like Tom Ford's A Single Man, and trend setting (or is it re-setting?) TV shows like Mad Men.
Backyard pools, a show of flesh, aspiration and despair all continue to reflect around our culture like the show of light on water...
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