David Hockney, who was one of Britain‘s favorite artists, a global celebrity, a world citizen and a bohemian, has “passed away peacefully at home” in London on Thursday, a month before his 89th birthday, his publicist Erica Bolton said in a statement to the press.
Considered one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries, Hockney first gained acclaim as an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s.
Always wanting ‘to see more’
Born in Bradford in 1937, David Hockney was the fourth of five children. As a child, his favorite place was sitting at the front on the upper floor of a double-decker bus. From there, he had the best view of the city and its landscape.
“I always wanted to see more,” the artist said in “Hockney,” the documentary film that director Randall Wright made in 2015 about him.
Later in life, Hockney tirelessly photographed everything around him, capturing scenes of everyday life, sketches by friends, houses, passers-by and all that interested him.
He also spent decades exploring digital tools for his art. He worked with fax machines and color copiers, used his iPhone as a sketchbook and even painted directly on his iPad.
In 2018, the artist created a stained-glass window for Westminster Abbey, designing it on his iPad. He often sat with the device in the church hall, inspired by the play of light.
In 2022, he created a portrait of singer Harry Styles on the device, saying at the time that it was particularly challenging since he preferred to depict friends. Hockney’s interest in new mediums and projects well into his old age was laudable.
“I’m always doing something else,” Hockney told The Guardian in a 2022 interview. “Yeah. They can argue all they want about the past, but I just get on to something else.”
A grounded star
Despite his iconic status, Hockney once said he rather considered himself a tireless worker.
He often woke at dawn because he found the early morning light to be so special. “I find it exciting to see how rain falls in a puddle and then to paint it,” said the artist who had a special passion for landscape paintings. Hockney maintained his artistic curiosity and spirit of discovery up until his death.
The artist created around 2,000 paintings, and thousands of photos and sketches. He often used the latter as studies for larger paintings. The UK painter also gained renown in the US, where he lived from the 1960s until he moved back near his hometown in England in 2000. He lived intermittently in his various residences in England and in California.
Hockney was friends with many great artists, including Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg. Like the works of his contemporaries, Hockney’s colorful acrylic works sold at a high price until his death.
In 2018, his “Portrait Of An Artist (Pool With Two Figures)” sold for $90.3 million (€89 million), which was at that time the highest price ever paid at auction for a painting by a living artist.
An anarchist with a sense of humor
In an interview with The Guardian, Hockney revealed his inner anarchist, using his typical sense of humor. At the meeting in a restaurant, he brought out two crumpled cigarette butts from his pocket, which turned out to be sculptures from a gallery in Berlin.
A lifelong chain smoker, during the COVID pandemic, Hockney even claimed that smokers had developed an immunity to coronavirus. The artist had penned a letter to The Daily Mail citing a study in China that had proven so.
Hockney smoked only Davidoffs, which are primarily sold in Germany and Switzerland. For the artist, smoking embodied the freedom of the 1960s.
Speaking to The Guardian, he said this period “was the freest time, probably ever.” He said in the last years of his life that he realized that time was over.
But the prolific artist, who was celebrated with a major retrospective of his works in 2025 at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, always remained enthusiastic about life: “If you see the world as beautiful, thrilling and mysterious, as I think I do, then you feel quite alive.”
This article was translated from German.
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