Celebrated British artist David Hockney dies aged 88
The celebrated artist, known for his A Bigger Splash artwork, has passed away, his publicist has confirmed.
Celebrated British artist David Hockney has died aged 88, his publicist has said.
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The artist, best known for his 1967 painting A Bigger Splash - an acrylic artwork depicting a pool and encapsulating the feel of 1960s Southern California.
A statement released by his publicist said: “The celebrated British artist David Hockney, one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries, passed away peacefully at home on 11 June 2026, one month short of his 89th birthday.”
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From the azure blue swimming pools of California to the lush green landscapes of his native Yorkshire, David Hockney’s art has graced the walls of countless galleries around the world.
Born in 1937 in Bradford, the artist rose to become one of the most influential British artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
He attended Bradford School of Art, before going on to study at the Royal College of Art in London.
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The Yorkshire-born artist was known as a politically active figure, hailing from a working-class family and rising to become a household name, with his artwork embracing a bold use of colour.
Over the course of more than seven decades his joyful, optimistic vision made him one of the world’s most popular artists responsible for some of the most memorable images of the 20th and 21st centuries.
In 2018, his painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) was sold at auction in New York for 90 million dollars (£70 million) – smashing the then record for a work by a living artist.
Long seen as a “national treasure”, with his huge round spectacles, gentle Yorkshire burr and bleached blond hair – replaced in later years by a series of flat caps – his image was almost as distinctive and familiar as his paintings.
While liberally drawing on the art of the past – from the Renaissance masters to the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock – he consistently pursued his own path, refusing to conform to the artistic fashions of the day.
As an art school rebel, he was initially denied a diploma, in part because he refused to complete an essay assignment, insisting he should be judged on his artwork alone.
At the start of his career, when the dominant strand in the avant garde was abstraction, he bucked the trend painting figuratively, often in bright colours with a primitivist style.
In later years, when some critics decried his embrace of landscape painting as a retrograde step, he made clear he “didn’t give a damn” about such carping.
Having grown up under the northern skies of industrial Bradford, he was enthralled by the light and freedoms of 1960s California, making the state his main home for 40 years.
In particular, as an openly gay man at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in England, he enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to explore his sexuality.
He produced a series of paintings featuring naked or semi-naked men which he later described as “homosexual propaganda”.
He said: “I felt it should be done. Nobody else would use it as a subject because it was a part of me. It was a subject I could treat humorously.”
More to follow.