David Hockney British, b. 1937

David Hockney (b. 1937) is Britain’s most important contemporary artist. His distinctive style is often characterised by a flattening of visual perspective and saturated colouration, bringing a sense of surreal vibrancy to the everyday. Over a career spanning more than six decades, Hockney has produced an expansive transdisciplinary oeuvre traversing a range of mediums – including painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, video, and digital arts. His approach to subject matter is just as varied, though he predominantly focuses on figuration, portraiture, and landscapes.

Hockney was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire in 1937. Having shown early promise in painting as a scholarship student at Bradford Grammar School, he went on to gain his initial artistic training at the Bradford College of Art between 1953 and 1957. Thereafter, following his completion of two years of National Service as a hospital orderly, he moved to London to study at the Royal College of Art from 1959-62. This was a hugely influential period for Hockney, introducing him to a significant network of likeminded and precocious fellow students – including R. B. Kitaj, Frank Bowling, Allen Jones, Derek Boshier, Richard Smith, and Patrick Caulfield.

This early stage of Hockney’s artistic development saw him win multiple awards, asserting his position as an important figure in the contemporary British art scene. In 1961, he was awarded the Junior Section Prize in the John Moores Exhibition, Liverpool and, upon graduating from the RCA in 1962, he received the College’s Gold Medal award. He then immediately gained his first gallery representation with the influential art dealer John Kasmin, owner of the Kasmin Gallery. It was here that Hockney had his first solo exhibition, Pictures with People In, the following year. He would go on to show new work with Kasmin and maintain a professional relationship with him for many years thereafter.

In 1964, Hockney relocated to Los Angeles, California, where he produced perhaps his most recognisable works. Drawn to the region’s hedonistic, sun-drenched, and sexually liberated lifestyle, the artist found bountiful inspiration in the city. His time in LA provided the impetus for his masterworks A Bigger Splash (1967) (Tate collection), The Room, Tarzana (1967), and Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1972). Another work from the period, Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool (1966) (Walker Art Gallery collection), was awarded the first prize in the John Moores Exhibition 6, Liverpool. Following the success and popularity of these works, Hockney’s career and public notoriety grew exponentially, and he has since become one of the most influential artists of his generation.

In 1970, his first museum retrospective was held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. This has been followed by consistent museum shows throughout his career, including at Tate Britain, London (1989; 1992; 2009; 2017); Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (travelling to the Royal Academy of Arts, London and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles) (1996-96); National Portrait Gallery, London (2006; 2020); Royal Academy of Art, London (2016); and Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2025).