Pop art pioneer who painted the world in dazzling colour, David Hockney dies at 88

LONDON, June 12 — British artist David Hockney, one of the most influential and defining figures in contemporary art, whose paintings captured the world in brilliant colour, has died aged 88, his publicist announced Friday.

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.

Lauding him as “one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries”, his publicist Erica Bolton said he died “peacefully at home” in London on Thursday, a month before his 89th birthday.

“His seven-decade career and prolific oeuvre was characterised 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,” her statement added.

Acclaimed around the world, Britain bestowed the Order of the Companions of Honour on Hockney in 1997, while earlier this year he became one of the few non-French citizens to be awarded France’s highest civilian honour, the legion d’honneur.

Tributes began to emerge within minutes of the announcement.

“His huge achievement was to make serious painting look effortless,” art historian Richard Morris said on X.

“He carried forward one of the most sustained investigations into vision, space and representation by any post-war artist. British art has lost a giant.”

The famous Pompidou Centre in Paris — with which he collaborated for two landmark exhibitions — said he was “unquestionably one of the major figures of contemporary art”. It added that the works he leaves behind remain “dazzling, alive and eternal”.

Innovator

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.

In 2018, his iconic swimming pool picture, “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)” sold for US$90.3 million 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.

London’s Serpentine Gallery is currently holding his first exhibition there, which was conceived in close collaboration with Hockney and features new paintings by him.

Future exhibitions at Tate, London and the Munch Museum in Oslo were in development.

His agent noted he 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”.

Hockney always retained his Yorkshire burr and was also a committed lifelong and defiant smoker, praising the pleasure it brought him, his publicist’s statement noted.

“He smoked up to the end,” it said. — AFP