OBITUARY
British art 'giant' David Hockney dies aged 88
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.
Issued on: 12/06/2026 - RFI
British artist David Hockney in front of his painting 'Fred and Marcia Weisman' at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, in June 2017 © Martin BUREAU / AFP/File
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".
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".
“Portrait of an Artist (Pool with two figures)”, by David Hockney. AFP - STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN
David Hockney's lockdown paintings of Normandy captivate Parisians
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 $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.
David Hockney's lockdown paintings of Normandy captivate Parisians
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 $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.
David Hockney in Normandy, 1 April, 2021. © David Hockney byJean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima
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".
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".
Andy Warhol, Henry Geldzahler, David Hockney and Jeff Goodman in 1963. Dennis Hopper
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.
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.
‘I worked every day’: How David Hockney fell in love with France during the Covid lockdown
British artist David Hockney, who died at the age of 88 on Thursday, fell in love with the French countryside in the last few years of his life. He settled in Normandy in 2019, where he lived during the Covid-19 lockdown and was able to rededicate himself to nature over a year of solitude.
Issued on: 13/06/2026 -
By: FRANCE 24
Late British painter David Hockney poses at the Orangerie museum in Paris, on October 7, 2021, in front of his painting "A year in Normandy". © Thomas Coex, AFP
British artist David Hockney, who has died at the age of 88, spoke to AFP in 2021 about spending the months of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in France.
They were, he said, a welcome opportunity to devote himself to observing nature.
"I really enjoy looking," he said.
"If you look at the world, it's very beautiful. But you've got to have a clear head and there's lots of things that stop you looking."
Hockney met journalists at the Musée de L'Orangerie in Paris, which was displaying the fruits of that period in an exhibition, "A Year in Normandy".
It featured a 91-metre-long frieze made from some of the 220 pictures he created during the strange year of solitude in 2020.
It is a clear nod to the 19th-century masters of landscape, particularly Claude Monet, occupying some of the neighbouring rooms in the museum.
"When the lockdown came I didn't mind at all," said Hockney, resplendent in his trademark round-rimmed glasses and a checked suit.
"We were in an isolated place and I worked every day because there were no visitors. Visitors put me off, get in the way."
All of the drawings were made on an iPad, which had become his preferred way to make art – much more than the photographs that used to be so central to his work.
He talked of how he loved drawing on the iPad, freeing him up from the paraphernalia of regular painting.
"It's a new technique," he said. " don't think there's many people doing it."
'Nature is the source'
The dazzling colours of the Normandy countryside were a perfect fit for Hockney, who made his name with sun-soaked scenes from California in the 1960s.
Though known for his jet-set lifestyle, sartorial elegance and large retinue of friends, he was always an industrious worker.
Farewell to David Hockney and Marilyn Monroe at 100
British artist David Hockney, who died at the age of 88 on Thursday, fell in love with the French countryside in the last few years of his life. He settled in Normandy in 2019, where he lived during the Covid-19 lockdown and was able to rededicate himself to nature over a year of solitude.
Issued on: 13/06/2026 -
By: FRANCE 24
Late British painter David Hockney poses at the Orangerie museum in Paris, on October 7, 2021, in front of his painting "A year in Normandy". © Thomas Coex, AFPBritish artist David Hockney, who has died at the age of 88, spoke to AFP in 2021 about spending the months of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in France.
They were, he said, a welcome opportunity to devote himself to observing nature.
"I really enjoy looking," he said.
"If you look at the world, it's very beautiful. But you've got to have a clear head and there's lots of things that stop you looking."
Hockney met journalists at the Musée de L'Orangerie in Paris, which was displaying the fruits of that period in an exhibition, "A Year in Normandy".
It featured a 91-metre-long frieze made from some of the 220 pictures he created during the strange year of solitude in 2020.
It is a clear nod to the 19th-century masters of landscape, particularly Claude Monet, occupying some of the neighbouring rooms in the museum.
"When the lockdown came I didn't mind at all," said Hockney, resplendent in his trademark round-rimmed glasses and a checked suit.
"We were in an isolated place and I worked every day because there were no visitors. Visitors put me off, get in the way."
All of the drawings were made on an iPad, which had become his preferred way to make art – much more than the photographs that used to be so central to his work.
He talked of how he loved drawing on the iPad, freeing him up from the paraphernalia of regular painting.
"It's a new technique," he said. " don't think there's many people doing it."
'Nature is the source'
The dazzling colours of the Normandy countryside were a perfect fit for Hockney, who made his name with sun-soaked scenes from California in the 1960s.
Though known for his jet-set lifestyle, sartorial elegance and large retinue of friends, he was always an industrious worker.
Farewell to David Hockney and Marilyn Monroe at 100
Cover image: arts24 © FRANCE 24
12:36
And he was delighted to have time to devote himself to nature, which he said had become his principal muse.
"The first day we came to Normandy, we watched a marvellous sunset over the Seine estuary. We had the clarity of Van Gogh."
He dismissed the idea that landscapes were no longer an interesting subject for art.
"Nature is the source of everything," he said.
"When I went to Yorkshire 16 years ago, people said 'You can't paint landscape today'. I said 'That's just because of the paintings – the landscape itself can't be boring'.
"The depictions of it have become boring, that's all. You've got to make them a bit different – and that's what I've tried to do."
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
12:36
And he was delighted to have time to devote himself to nature, which he said had become his principal muse.
"The first day we came to Normandy, we watched a marvellous sunset over the Seine estuary. We had the clarity of Van Gogh."
He dismissed the idea that landscapes were no longer an interesting subject for art.
"Nature is the source of everything," he said.
"When I went to Yorkshire 16 years ago, people said 'You can't paint landscape today'. I said 'That's just because of the paintings – the landscape itself can't be boring'.
"The depictions of it have become boring, that's all. You've got to make them a bit different – and that's what I've tried to do."
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
