British artist David Hockney, considered one of the most influential and defining figures in contemporary art, whose paintings captured the world in brilliant colour, has died aged 88.
Describing Hockney as “one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries”, his publicist Erica Bolton said in a statement on Friday that he had “passed away peacefully at home” in London a day earlier. She did not give a cause of death.
“His seven-decade career and prolific oeuvre was characterised by his multimedia 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,” her statement added.
One of the leading artists involved in the Pop art movement in the 1960s, Hockney established himself as a globally renowned painter and master draughtsman and kept painting, experimenting and exhibiting right up until his death.
Born in 1937 in west Yorkshire, northern England, Hockney trained at the Bradford School of Art in the region and then at London’s Royal College, from which he graduated with a Gold Medal distinction.
A conscientious objector who did his military service as a hospital orderly, Hockney went against the conventions of post-war Britain, realising at an early age that he was gay and that he wanted to be an artist.
He would soon emerge as one of the seminal talents in the new generation of British artists, capturing everything from carefree 1960s California – where he moved in 1964 – to the bucolic landscapes of his native Yorkshire.
With his trademark round glasses and bleached-blond hair, he was a well-known figure in the swinging British and US art scenes of the 1960s, even before he reached the age of 30.
His paintings were just as distinctive, many of them creating a dreamlike world of patterned light bouncing off water and windows, and human forms rendered in flattened, simplified shapes in matte acrylic paint.
In 2018, his iconic swimming pool picture, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold for $90.3m in New York, setting a new auction record for a living artist. He was unseated by Jeff Koons’ Rabbit a year later.
Known for experimenting in a range of media and techniques – including printmaking, photography and stage design, alongside painting and drawing – he embraced modern technology as it emerged.
He had used iPads since they first came out in 2010 and worked with developers to create custom-made apps, according to a National Portrait Gallery profile. He also kept showcasing new work.
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.
