David Hockney, the British artist whose sun-drenched pool paintings and vivid portraits redefined contemporary British art and made him one of the most celebrated figures in modern art history, died on Friday. He was 88.
Breaking
David Hockney, the British artist whose sun-drenched pool paintings, vivid portraits and boundless curiosity made him one of the most celebrated and commercially successful artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, died on Friday, his family confirmed. He was 88.
The Yorkshire-born painter, photographer and printmaker passed away peacefully, according to a statement released through his studio. No cause of death was immediately given. Hockney had continued to work and exhibit art into his late eighties, showing a creative energy that never dimmed.
“David Hockney was a joyful, relentless innovator who saw beauty everywhere and shared it with the world,” said art historian Marcus Whitmore. “His work changed the way we see not just art, but light, colour, and the simple pleasure of looking.”
A Life Painted in Light and Colour
Born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1937, Hockney attended the Royal College of Art in London, where he quickly became known for bold, figurative paintings that challenged the prevailing abstractions of the era. His early work drew on his identity as a gay man with an unapologetic directness that was radical for its time.
His 1967 painting A Bigger Splash became perhaps his most iconic work — a crystalline snapshot of California leisure that has graced countless book covers, documentaries and the popular imagination. The image of a diving board and its consequent splash, rendered in Hockney’s characteristic flat, bright palette, became shorthand for optimism, youth and the California dream.
Moving to Los Angeles in the 1960s, Hockney immersed himself in the city’s swimming pools, sunshine and social circles, producing portraits of friends and lovers that were tender, precise and free of irony. His portraits — of writers, collectors, curators and artists — eschewed the grand tradition of formal sitting in favour of intimacy and spontaneity.
The iPad That Changed Everything
What set Hockney apart from his contemporaries was not just his subject matter but his lifelong willingness to embrace new tools. After pioneering the use of Polaroid collages and photocopiers in the 1980s, he adopted the iPad as his primary drawing tool in 2010, producing thousands of landscapes and portraits through the screen’s glow.
“He’s the most important British artist since Turner,” wrote art critic Robert Hughes in 2011. “Hockney has the rare gift of being popular without ever being cheap.”
His 2012 exhibition David Hockney: A Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy of Arts in London drew record-breaking crowds, confirming his place as a living master whose work crossed generational and national boundaries.
Legacy and Recognition
Hockney was awarded the Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government and was a Companion of Honour in the United Kingdom. In 2018, a major retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris solidified his status as one of the defining artists of the modern era.
He is survived by his partner of many years, Jonathon, and by a body of work that hangs in museums from London to Los Angeles to Tokyo. His swimming pools will outlive us all.
The art world and millions of admirers around the world mourn the loss of a true original.
Sarah Mitchell
Sarah Mitchell writes opinion columns on politics, power, and the contradictions that shape public life.