David Hockney, British painter and Pop art figure, dies at 88
The artist’s publicist said Hockney died peacefully at his London home after a seven-decade career spanning painting, photography, stage design and digital work.
By Lucas Ferreira · Science & Environment Writer
3 min read
David Hockney, the British artist whose bright, formally inventive work made him a central figure in contemporary art, has died at 88. His publicist, Erica Bolton, said he died peacefully at his home in London on Thursday, according to AFP and AP.
Bolton announced the death on Friday and did not give a cause, AFP and AP reported. In her statement, she described Hockney as one of the most important contemporary artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Bolton said Hockney’s seven-decade career was marked by work across media, a sustained examination of image-making and perspective, and a continuing effort to depict the world around him. AFP and AP reported that he continued to paint, experiment and exhibit until the end of his life.
From Yorkshire to California
Hockney was born in 1937 in west Yorkshire, in northern England, AFP and AP reported. He studied at the Bradford School of Art before attending the Royal College in London, where he graduated with a Gold Medal distinction.
AFP and AP reported that Hockney was a conscientious objector and completed military service as a hospital orderly. He also moved against the expectations of postwar Britain, recognizing early that he was gay and that he wanted to be an artist, the agencies reported.
Hockney became part of the generation of British artists who reshaped the country’s art scene in the 1960s, AFP and AP reported. He was also among the leading artists associated with Pop art during that decade.
After moving to California in 1964, Hockney painted images tied to the relaxed visual culture of the era, while also returning in his work to the rural scenes of his native Yorkshire, AFP and AP reported. His public image — round glasses and bleached-blond hair — made him recognizable in British and American art circles before he turned 30, according to the agencies.
A distinctive visual language
AFP and AP described Hockney’s paintings as known for patterned light, water, windows and simplified human figures rendered in matte acrylic. His swimming pool painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold in New York in 2018 for $90.3m, then a record for a living artist, the agencies reported.
That auction mark was surpassed the following year by Jeff Koons’ Rabbit, according to AFP and AP. Hockney’s broader practice also included printmaking, photography, stage design, drawing and painting, the agencies reported.
Hockney adopted new tools as they appeared, including the iPad after its 2010 release, according to a National Portrait Gallery profile cited by AFP and AP. The profile said he also worked with developers on custom apps.
In 2021, Hockney appeared at the Orangerie museum in Paris with A Year in Normandy, a 91-metre work painted during the 2020 lockdown, according to AFP. In 2018, AFP photographed him at Westminster Abbey in London during a preview of the Queen’s Window, a stained-glass window he designed and Barley Studio York created.
Hockney is survived by his longtime partner, Jean-Pierre Goncalves de Lima; his great-nephew and studio assistant, Richard Hockney; his brothers, Philip and John; and numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, AFP and AP reported.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.