David Hockney has died at the age of 88, his publicist says, just shy of his 89th birthday - see his life in pictures
Hockney's essence was joy, writes BBC culture editor Katie Razzall. He taught us to celebrate the beauty of being alive - and his works live on
The British artist is one of the most influential of the modern era and he was one of the leaders of the 1960s pop art movement
In 2018, one of his swimming pool paintings, 'Portrait of an Artist', sold for nearly £70 million at auction - a record for a living artist
Hockney's depictions of gay domestic life came when homosexual relationships were still criminalised - making it "nothing short of revolutionary", our LGBT and identities reporter notes
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy describes Hockney as a "true titan of British art" in a tribute posted on X.
She says his paintings "have inspired people across the world" ever since his first exhibition, 'David Hockney: Pictures with People In' in 1963.
Nandy adds: "His boundless creativity and restless spirit leave behind a powerful legacy."
Image source, Getty ImagesMore than 600 illuminated drones lit up the sky in Hockney's hometown of Bradford in 2025
Hockney travelled the world with his art and ever-changing techniques and influences.
Here are some key dates from his life:
1937: Born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, later attending Bradford Art School.
1959: After two years of National Service - where as a conscientious objector, he worked as an orderly in hospitals - he joins the Royal College of Art.
1964: As his painting career takes off, Hockney moves to LA - in the years following he paints some of his most famous work - including 'A Bigger Splash'.
1979: After years of working across Europe, he moves to the Hollywood Hills and turns his focus to portraits.
1988: He creates the first piece of art via fax machine.
2002: Hockney begins painting watercolours, later working "en plein air" [painting outside] in the East Yorkshire countryside.
2010: Hockney starts painting on an iPad.
2017: The artist celebrates his 70th birthday with exhibitions around the world, and creates 3D photographic drawings.
2025: 'Hockney 25' exhibits in Paris, with over 400 works spanning decades.
Here are some of David Hockney's most notable works from the past 60 years.
His paintings have depicted intimate portraits of friends, the colourful landscape of Californian life, and the natural beauty of Yorkshire.
Image source, AFP via Getty ImagesIn 1966, Hockney completed 'Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool', which is now held at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool
Image source, PA WireHockney painted 'A Bigger Splash' (1967) after being taken aback by California's colourful and relaxed lifestyle
Image source, AFP via Getty Images'Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy' (1970-1) depicts fashion designer Ossie Clark and the textile designer Celia Birtwell in their flat in Notting Hill Gate with their cat
Image source, AFP via Getty Images'Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)' was completed in 1972, and captures a peaceful yet humanised snapshot
Image source, AFP via Getty ImagesHockney stands next to his 2007 painting 'Bigger Trees Near Warter', the largest he ever created - it comprises 50 smaller canvasses of a landscape near the East Yorkshire village of Warter
Annabel Rackham
Culture reporter
Image source, PA MediaHockney often created artworks on his iPad in later life
David Hockney was at the forefront of experimenting with using new technology to make art.
When faxes were at the cutting edge in the 1980s, he would send dozens of pages to be assembled into a giant artwork by the recipient.
As technology marched on, he used an iPad extensively, and a collection of his iPad drawings famously sold at auction for £6.2m in 2025.
The 17 prints, titled The 'Arrival of Spring in Woldgate', were started in 2011, when Hockney moved from the US to Bridlington.
He told the Royal Academy of Arts in 2021 that lockdown allowed him to experiment with this “new medium”.
Katie Razzall
Culture editor
Katie Razzall speaking to David Hockney
The world has lost some of its colour.
Because that’s what Britain’s best loved modern artist brought us.
He once told me "colour is a joyful thing. I want my art to be joyful." And it is.
Whether his paintings of nature or swimming pools, his portraits of friends or his digital experiments, Hockney was an endless innovator - on canvas and iPad, through his photo collages.
But his essence was joy - and looking closely at things the rest of us miss.
He told me: "I can look at a puddle and get pleasure out of them. Most people think it’s just raining."
He was the British artist everyone had heard of - and he was working to the end. Drawing and painting was "all I want to do now".
Hockney taught us to celebrate the beauty of being alive - and his works live on.
Following the death of David Hockney, Keir Starmer has described him as “one of Britain’s most celebrated artists”.
A No 10 spokeswoman says: “The Prime Minister is saddened to hear of the death of David Hockney, one of Britain’s most celebrated artists.
“His vivid, instantly recognisable work influenced generations of artists, and the Prime Minister’s thoughts are with his friends and family.”
Image source, Getty ImagesHockney created a 91-metre-long landscape of Normandy
More tributes are coming in, including from France, where David Hockney spent a considerable amount of time.
Eric Ciotti, the mayor of Nice, writes on X that "the art world has lost an absolute master".
"Nice cherishes the memory of the exceptional bond he shared with Henri Matisse, his mentor."
Meanwhile, an X account for the Normandy Region, where Hockney lived for a while, describes him as a "source of inspiration".
Hockney painted the landscapes of his home in Normandy - a project completed during the Covid lockdown.
"His vision of our region will continue to enchant generations of visitors and admirers of his work," the post on X says.
Josh Parry
LGBT and identity reporter
Hockney’s depictions of homosexual life were nothing short of revolutionary.
In an otherwise conservative era, he broke social taboos by celebrating gay relationships through his art.
He often depicted the quiet, everyday moments of gay domestic life at a time when such scenes were just not seen in the mainstream.
And what made it so revolutionary? He started doing it at a time when being gay was still criminalised in the UK.
In 1961, as a second-year student at the Royal College of Art, six years before homosexuality began to be decriminalised, he painted 'We Two Boys Together Clinging', named after a Walt Whitman poem.
He later went on to describe his early works as “propaganda of something I felt hadn't been propagandised as a subject: homosexuality.”
Dominic James Bilton, co-leader of the Queer British Art Network, told the BBC: “We’ve lost one of those people who were making changes in society before it was socially and culturally acceptable to be gay.
“He pioneered queer British art before it was fashionable to do so, before contemporary society built upon it.
“We’ve lost a giant of queer British art that subsequent generations have been inspired by and built upon and there’s not many people we can say that about.”
Image source, Getty ImagesDavid Hockney attends the gala opening of 'Bigger & Closer' in London in February 2023
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan describes Hockney as a "true icon", and a "revolutionary of British art who never stopped reinventing his work".
In a post on X, Khan highlights Hockney's training at the Royal College of Art in London in the 1960s, and pays tribute to his "blockbuster London retrospectives".
The mayor describes how Hockey's "vivid paintings of our changing seasons" helped him to "see the beauty and fragility of our natural world".
"I know his legacy will live on for centuries to come," he adds.
Steven McIntosh
Entertainment reporter
Image source, Getty ImagesHockney pictured with one of his paintings at the Tate Britain in 2008
More tributes are coming in from the art world for David Hockney, with Tate Britain director Alex Farquharson saying the institution is "greatly saddened" by his death.
"David was an endlessly inventive artist, with a unique vision of the world," Farquaharson says. "He was always completely and courageously himself, both in his work and in life.
"He taught us about the joy of looking, seeing things the rest of us failed to notice - his witty and sharp observations a constant presence within his work and in person."
He adds: "The loss to the art world is immense: David's passing brings to a close an extraordinary body of work characterised by reinvention. He touched so many, with his astonishing talent, his love for art and life, and his profound and unconventional insights."
Farquharson confirms the Tate will be "working closely with David's team to realise the two projects he was preparing for next year".
They include a major exhibition at the Tate Britain, and a multimedia installation at the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall.
Steven McIntosh
Entertainment reporter
Image source, Getty ImagesHockney pictured in his living room in Los Angeles in 1991
Paying tribute on social media, broadcaster Piers Morgan remembered Hockney as a "wonderful character" and recalled seeing him in London recently.
"One of Britain’s greatest ever artists, a Yorkshireman to his bootstraps, my neighbour in Kensington (often saw him on local manoeuvres, albeit in a wheelchair more recently) and a wonderful character.
He added: "Loved his quote: ‘Laugh a lot, it clears the lungs.’"
Labour MP Chris Bryant said he was "very sad" to hear Hockney had died.
"The recent exhibition in Paris was one of the most memorable I’ve seen in many years," he added. "So innovative and inspiring.
"The way he renders shimmering water or night time scenes is amazing. And his line in portraits is perfect."
Art historian Richard Morris said Hockney's "huge achievement was to make serious painting look effortless".
"He carried forward one of the most sustained investigations into vision, space and representation by any post-war artist," Morris said.
"British art has lost a giant."
Sam Woodhouse
BBC News
Image source, Getty ImagesHockney's 'A Bigger Splash' captures the moment an unseen diver creates chaos in paradise
In 1964, Hockney flew to Los Angeles - looking for the perfect light and bronzed torsos he'd seen in American male magazines.
Upon landing, he saw hundreds of swimming pools glittering in the valleys below him. They promised a carefree existence of affluence, leisure and sexual freedom.
Britain had only just abandoned rationing; in California, swimming pools weren't luxuries - just a way of life.
Hockney was entranced. He ditched his British oil paints in favour of bright, Californian acrylics but retained his Bradford accent - which the Americans adored.
The swimming pools themselves - with glorious weather and naked male bodies - became Hockney's most famous theme.
He had found his Paradise.
David Hockney talks to Katie Razzall about his biggest-ever exhibition in Paris aged 87
After deciding to be an artist aged 11, Hockney became one of the most successful and influential artists of his generation, and was still creating new works at 87.
Happiest when making "joyful" art, and always innovating with his iPad, his works sold for millions.
Before his biggest-ever show opened in Paris last year, Hockney spoke to Katie Razzall about growing old, a recent visit from the King, and his two big loves - smoking and painting.
Image source, Getty ImagesDavid Hockney poses with one of his paintings in Paris in 2017
David Hockney, known for his figurative work, economy of line, and exploration of light and space, is considered one of Britain's most influential contemporary artists.
Throughout a career spanning seven decades, Hockney experimented with painting, drawing, printmarking, watercolours and various other forms of art - including embracing technology by drawing on an iPad.
Hockney moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s, a move which inspired some of his most famous works, including swimming pool scenes such as 'A Bigger Splash'.
In 2018, his work 'Portrait of an Artist' sold for $90m (£70m) at auction, setting a then-record for a living artist.
His work has been presented in art institutions around the world, including the Musuem of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Tate Britain in London, and the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris.
Sam Woodhouse
BBC News
Image source, Getty ImagesIn a long career, David Hockney won every honour.
He turned down as many as he could.
In 1990, he refused a knighthood and was furious to discover he'd become a Companion of Honour.
The story goes that someone opened the letter and accepted on his behalf.
He did, however, accept the Order of Merit, the most prestigious award for high achievement. Believing it to be the personal gift of Queen Elizabeth II, Hockney felt it ungracious to decline.
But there was one tribute he did enjoy.
In 2007, a party was held at Tate Britain to celebrate Hockney's 70th birthday. After dinner, it was announced that the smoke alarms would be turned off for 10 minutes to allow Britain's Greatest Living Artist a cigarette.
It was the kind of honour plain 'Mr' Hockney did appreciate. And one which would not have been granted to anybody else.
From his contribution to the pop art movement in the 1960s, to painting a 91-metre work during the Covid pandemic, David Hockney was a majorly influential figure in the art world.
Here are some pictures from across the decades:
Image source, Getty ImagesHockney painting in his home studio in Los Angeles in 1966
Image source, Getty ImagesHockney pictured in front of his work, 'Santa Monica Boulevard', in 1980
Image source, Getty ImagesHockney's "Great Wall" of portraits in his Los Angeles studio - pictured here in 2001
Image source, Getty ImagesHockney in front of his painting 'A year in Normandie', a panoramic frieze painted during the Covid lockdown
Sam Woodhouse
BBC News
Image source, Getty ImagesHockney, pictured at work in the 1960s, spent long hours in the studio and was often haunted by the feeling that he wasn't getting enough done
Hockney studied at the Royal College of Art in London - but very much did things his own way.
His classmate, the American artist RB Kitaj, told him to ignore everyone else and simply paint things he loved. "It was the best advice I ever had," he said.
What interested him was politics, literature and exploring his homosexuality. So one portrait showed himself in an act of love with the American poet, Walt Whitman.
Hockney was the college's star student but still gloriously pig-headed. David refused to write the one essay required to graduate, and so failed his finals.
The resulting outcry forced the Royal College to back down. It gave him his degree and even awarded him its prestigious Gold Medal.
David Hockney is survived by his partner Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima.
He also leaves behind two brothers - Phillip and John - as well as a number of nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.
Hockney's publicist, Erica Bolton, specifically mentions his great-nephew Richard, who acted as his studio assistant towards the end of his life.
David Hockney was born on 9 July 1937.
His father, Kenneth, was a conscientious objector who detested social injustice, nuclear weapons and smoking in equal measure.
His mother, Laura, was the backbone of the family: strong-willed and devoutly Methodist.
David was one five children; during bombing raids, they hid under the stairs at their home in Bradford clutching bibles. In 1940, one explosion flattened the street.
The wartime shortage of paper restricted his early artistic efforts to drawing on the kitchen floor and hymn books in church.
Image source, WPA Pool/Getty ImagesWe can now bring you some more from Hockney's publicist, who describes how his "enduring legacy reflects his underlying enthusiasm for life".
Erica Bolton notes some of the honours he received throughout his career, including being appointed by Queen Elizabeth II to the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1997 and to the Order of Merit in 2012.
She also mentions the periods of time he spent living in London and in Los Angeles - the scenes from which inspired a number of his works.
Bolton adds that Hockney is "considered one of the most influential and defining figures in contemporary art".
