By: Art Werger

Medium: Etching w/ Aquatint
Year: 1997
Edition: 30
Image Size: 24 × 36 inches

in Beneath the Surface: Dissolve, Werger captures a fleeting, immersive moment beneath the rippling surface of a swimming pool. Echoing the iconic swimming pool paintings of David Hockney, Werger explores the luminous beauty of water as both subject and medium for distortion. Like Hockney, he uses the pool as a stage for human interaction, where light fragments into shimmering patterns and bodies become abstracted by refraction. Yet, Werger’s approach is distinct in its technical rigor and intimate, narrative focus, marrying photorealistic detail with the dreamlike qualities of submerged perspective.

The scene radiates both intimacy and universality: a family bound in motion, the child’s hand clasped securely, surrounded by the quiet blue expanse of water. Werger’s precise intaglio technique and painterly use of color evoke the sensation of being suspended in time, offering a contemplative study of light, movement, and connection.