David Hockney

A pioneer of the pop art movement of the 1960s, British artist David Hockney, is considered one of the most prolific artists of the 20th and 21st century. Endlessly multifaceted, his works span a range of different medias, from intense studies of optical devices, to large-scale opera stagings and photo collages. His works are charged with bright colours depicting en plain air landscapes, portraits of his friends and family, and still-life.

Born is Bradford, Yorkshire, Hockney was educated at Bradford College of Art and then the Royal College of Art, London, where he was featured in the Young Contemporaries exhibition, alongside Peter Blake, announcing the arrival of the British Pop Art movement. 

Travelling between London and America during the mid-1960s, Hockney became captivated by Los Angeles. It presented a bohemian land of liberalism with its yellow and orange surroundings. The paintings he created in 1966, are the celebrated images of his career. He took inspiration principally from a manual on ‘How to Maintain Swimming Pools’, which became the starting point for his paintings, ’Little Splash’, ‘The Splash’, and ‘A Bigger Splash’. The image of the splash expressed the perversity of painting a single moment, created through single strokes. In 2018,’Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)’ (1972), sold at Christie’s for $90 million, becoming the most expensive artwork by a living artist to be sold at auction. 

Most recently, Hockney has gravitated to more modern methods of creativity, producing hundreds of images using an iPad. In 2018, he designed a stained glass window which was unveiled at Westminster Abbey to celebrate the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. 

David Hockney has been featured in over 400 solo exhibitions and over 500 group shows, which have awarded him a vast number of accolades throughout his career.