David Hockney, the pioneering British artist whose vibrant depictions of sun-drenched Californian swimming pools made him a titan of contemporary art, has died at the age of 88. His publicist Erica Bolton confirmed his passing on Thursday in a statement, though no cause of death was provided.
Growing up in the notoriously grey climate of northern England, a young Hockney found himself mesmerised by the stark shadows in Laurel and Hardy films. He later recalled to the BBC that such strong, defined shadows implied intense sunlight, sparking a lifelong fascination with brightness. This yearning for light eventually drew him away from his roots in Bradford and across the Atlantic.
Born to a devout Methodist mother and an accountancy clerk father, David Hockney was a natural rebel. During his time as an art student, he boldly explored themes of homosexuality through abstract works with titles like Going to be a Queen for Tonight and Doll Boy, doing so at a time when such expressions could result in imprisonment.
Moving to London in 1959, he quickly ascended the ranks of the British pop art movement. He rubbed shoulders with cultural icons such as Mick Jagger and dancer Rudolf Nureyev. Yet it was America that truly called to him. After a trip to New York in 1961 where he befriended Andy Warhol, Hockney permanently relocated to Los Angeles three years later.
The Californian dream and record sales
In California he found the freedom and vivid colours he had long craved. Armed with luminous acrylic paints, he began documenting the luxurious lifestyle of Los Angeles. His defining images of naked men in showers and pristine swimming pools quickly became global icons, leading him to divide his time between Los Angeles, London and Paris during the late 1960s and 1970s.
His signature personal style, peroxide blonde hair, thick-rimmed spectacles and shiny gold jackets, made him a poster boy for the Swinging Sixties. Despite his immense fame, Hockney remained famously down-to-earth. He once joked to a biographer that he was simply a student who just happened to have quite a lot of credit cards in his pocket.
His commercial success was astronomical. In 2018 his masterpiece Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold for a staggering $90.3 mln. At the time it set the record for the most expensive artwork by a living artist ever sold at auction.
Return to Yorkshire
As he aged and the tragic AIDS epidemic claimed many of his friends, his work took on a more domestic tone. He famously painted his beloved dachshunds and reportedly cried for two days when his dog Stanley died in 2001.
Encouraged by a terminally ill friend, David Hockney began spending more time visiting his mother in his native Yorkshire during the late 1990s. Seeking solace from loneliness, he eventually moved to the coastal town of Bridlington. Here he embarked on the most prolific period of his entire career. He captured the shifting seasons of the Yorkshire Wolds, painting bare winter trees, golden summer crops and winding country tracks.
A lifelong innovator
A ceaseless innovator who was rarely seen without a cigarette in his hand, Hockney eagerly embraced new technology throughout his life. He experimented with fax machines to share his work before adopting the iPad as a primary medium for his digital paintings. His monumental Yorkshire pieces even inspired a stained-glass window for Westminster Abbey in central London.
In 2018 David Hockney purchased a farmhouse in Normandy. Alongside his long-term partner and assistant Jean-Pierre Goncalves de Lima, he dedicated his final years to painting the vibrant fields and flowers of his French garden. His legendary work ethic, forged during two years of hospital work after refusing military service, never wavered.
«You don’t retire doing this,» he once remarked in his distinctive Yorkshire accent when asked about his unflagging energy. «You just do it until you fall over.»
