David Hockney, the British painter whose vibrant depictions of modern life made him one of the most influential artists of his generation, died on Thursday in London, his publicist Erica Bolton confirmed.
According to artnet.com, he was 88 and continued working until his death.
Born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1937, Hockney studied at Bradford College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. He sold his first painting, a portrait of his father, for £10 at the Yorkshire Artists Exhibition in 1957.
Hockney came out as gay at 23, before homosexuality was decriminalised in the UK. Early works including We Two Boys Together Clinging, 1961, and Domestic Scene, Los Angeles, 1963, openly depicted queer life. His first solo exhibition was held at Kasmin Gallery in 1963 when he was 26.
After moving to Southern California in 1964, he produced his best-known swimming pool paintings. A Bigger Splash, 1967, painted in acrylic, took two weeks to complete and became one of his most celebrated works. He also painted portraits of his circle, including writer Christopher Isherwood and artist Peter Schlesinger.
Hockney experimented across acrylic, watercolour, photo collage, print, drawing and digital tools. He was an early adopter of the iPad and later created immersive installations. A Year in Normandie, 2021, a monumental work inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, is currently on view at the Serpentine North in London through August 23.
In the 1990s he returned frequently to Yorkshire. His large-scale landscape Bigger Trees Near Warter, 2007, measures 15 by 40 feet and was donated to Tate in 2009.
Hockney lived with longtime partner and collaborator Jean-Pierre Goncalves de Lima in Normandy until 2023, before settling in London. His honours included the Praemium Imperiale in 1989, an Order of Merit appointed by Queen Elizabeth II in 2012, and France’s Légion d’Honneur with Officier rank in 2026. He declined a knighthood in 1990.
He had more than 400 solo exhibitions. A 2017 Tate Britain retrospective for his 80th birthday travelled to the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. At the time of his death, he was the most valuable living painter at auction. Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972, sold for $90.3 million at Christie’s in 2018.
Hockney’s career spanned seven decades and consistently embraced new technology while maintaining a distinctive style. His work is held in major public collections worldwide, and his influence extended from painting to photography and digital art.
•Featured image: David Hockney standing with The Arrival Of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, 2017/Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images
