David Hockney, the British artist who painted California in brilliant colour, dies at 88

Death announced

British artist David Hockney has died at age 88, his publicist Erica Bolton confirmed. Bolton said Hockney "passed away peacefully at home" in London on Thursday, one month short of his 89th birthday. No cause of death was given. He is survived by his partner, Jean‑Pierre Gonçalves de Lima.

From Bradford to California

Born in Bradford in 1937 to a working‑class family, Hockney showed early artistic talent and sold his first painting at 20. He studied at the Royal College of Art in London, where he became a central figure in the British pop art movement. In 1964, drawn by the light and colour of American art, he moved to Los Angeles.

Strong shadows meant a lot of sun. So I thought, well, wherever that is, it’s always sunny.

Swimming pools and sunshine

The California years produced his most iconic works, including ‘A Bigger Splash’ (1967) and ‘Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)’ (1972), vivid depictions of pools, modernist gardens and sun‑drenched architecture. These paintings, executed in luminous acrylics, encapsulated a lifestyle of leisure and sensuality and established Hockney as a superstar.

Record at auction

Hockney’s commercial success matched his critical acclaim. In November 2018, ‘Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)’ sold at Christie’s for $90.3 million, at the time a record for a work by a living artist. The sale underlined his enduring market power decades after the canvas was painted.

An artist until the end

Hockney never stopped experimenting. After a stroke in 2012 temporarily impaired his speech, he continued to work, later adopting the iPad as a canvas well into his 70s. A major retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris in 2025 celebrated his seven‑decade career. He spent his final years between London and Normandy, painting for hours each day despite hearing and respiratory problems.