Key takeaways:
- David Hockney died peacefully at home in London at age 88, his publicist said.
- His 2018 painting “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)” sold for $90.3 million, then a record for a living artist.
- The Serpentine Gallery is currently showing his first exhibition there, and future exhibitions at Tate and the Munch Museum were in development.
David Hockney, the Bradford-born artist whose blazing California pools, Yorkshire landscapes and restless experiments with new technology made him one of the most influential figures in contemporary art, has died at 88.
His publicist, Bolton & Quinn, said Hockney “passed away peacefully at home” in London on Thursday. He would have turned 89 next month. The firm described him as “one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries,” citing a seven-decade career marked by “his multi-media approach in image making, an intellectual inquiry into the nature of depiction and perspective, and a sustained commitment to celebrating and portraying the world around him.”
Hockney is survived by his long-time partner and companion, Jean-Pierre Goncalves de Lima, two brothers and numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, his publicist said.
Born on July 9, 1937, in Bradford, West Yorkshire, Hockney was one of five children. He trained at Bradford School of Art and later at the Royal College of Art in London, where he graduated with a Gold Medal distinction. As a student, he was known for his determination to draw and paint. “I am no good at science but I can draw,” he once wrote in an exam, according to the BBC.
Hockney emerged in the 1960s as a leading figure associated with Pop art, though his work ranged far beyond one movement. He worked in paint, photography, etching, lithography, opera design, stained glass and, later, iPad drawings. He credited a classmate, the American artist R.B. Kitaj, with urging him to ignore fashion and paint what he loved. “It was the best advice I ever had,” Hockney said.
In 1964, Hockney moved to Los Angeles, where the light, architecture and swimming pools helped define some of his best-known work. “A Bigger Splash” became one of his signature paintings, and his pool pictures came to symbolize a world of leisure and openness. In 2018, “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)” sold in New York for $90.3 million, setting an auction record for a living artist at the time. The record was surpassed the following year by Jeff Koons’ “Rabbit.”
Hockney returned repeatedly to portraiture, often painting friends and family, and later focused on expansive landscapes of the Yorkshire Wolds after moving to Bridlington, where his sister and elderly mother lived. He continued making and exhibiting art into his 80s, including Normandy landscapes completed during the coronavirus lockdown and a 2023 self-narrated immersive London presentation featuring paintings, photographs and opera sets projected on 11-metre-high walls.
Current and planned exhibitions underscored his continuing productivity. London’s Serpentine Gallery is holding his first exhibition there, developed in close collaboration with him and featuring new paintings. Future exhibitions at Tate in London and the Munch Museum in Oslo were in development, his publicist said. The BBC reported that a major Tate Modern show was also being planned for what would have been his 90th birthday in 2027.
Hockney received major honors, though he did not accept all of them. Britain awarded him the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1997, and he accepted the Order of Merit. He refused a knighthood in 1990, according to the BBC. In 2026, he became one of the few non-French citizens awarded the rank of Officier in France’s Legion d’Honneur.
Known for his Yorkshire accent, round glasses and outspoken views, Hockney was also a lifelong smoker. “He smoked up to the end,” his publicist said.
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