Jack Hazan's fictionalised 1973 biopic, A Bigger Splash, concentrating on the breakup of Hockney's relationship with Peter Schlesinger, was named after the painting.

Luca Guadagnino's 2015 film A Bigger Splash (a loose remake of La Piscine) was also named after the painting.

[1] A Bigger Splash shows a typical California day – warm and sunny, with a cloudless blue sky.

A thickening in the white line atop the building's flat roof emphasizes the place where the diver has entered the water.

The canvas – almost a perfect square – is dominated by the strong vertical and horizontal lines of the trees, the building, and the edge of the pool; it is divided evenly into the sky, building and patio in the upper half, and the pool and diving board in the lower half.

The painting has been viewed as a critical link in Hockney's ruminations on time between his earlier Picture Emphasising Stillness and his later "joiners" portraits, created by collaging many photographs of the same subject taken over a period of hours.

[8] The Marquess of Dufferin and Ava bought the finished work from John Kasmin's gallery in 1968, and sold it to the Tate in 1981.