#DavidHockney 2026 jzebraa
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In 2018, “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)” fetched $90.3 million to become (if only briefly) the most expensive work by a living artist ever to sell at auction. The next year, his double portrait “Henry Geldzahler and Christopher Scott” went for $49.5 million at Christie’s, while his 1980 landscape painting “Nichols Canyon” went on to fetch over $41 million.
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David Hockney (9 July 1937 – 11 June 2026) was an
English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer who stood as one of the most influential British artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. As a foundational figure of the
1960s Pop Art movement, he became globally renowned for his sun-drenched California swimming pool paintings, vivid double portraits, and an iconoclastic, lifelong obsession with how humans visually perceive the world. He passed away peacefully at his home at the age of 88. [
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Key Artistic Phases & Masterpieces
Throughout a prolific seven-decade career, Hockney restlessly experimented across a vast array of traditional and cutting-edge media: [
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- California & Swimming Pools: Moving to Los Angeles in 1964, he captured the vibrant lifestyle and bright light of Southern California. His legendary work A Bigger Splash (1967) remains a defining image of the pop art era. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
- Double Portraits: He masterfully chronicled his personal circles and family. Works like Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy (1971) and My Parents (1977) captured complex emotional and psychological depth. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
- Photo-Collages ("Joiners"): In the 1980s, inspired by Cubism, he constructed compound images from multiple Polaroid photos (such as Pearblossom Highway) to challenge linear perspective. [1]
- Yorkshire Landscapes: Returning to his native Yorkshire in the 2000s, he painted massive, multi-canvas en plein air landscapes, culminating in the 32-canvas masterpiece The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate (2011). [1, 2]
- Digital Art Innovation: Unafraid of technology, Hockney embraced creating art on fax machines in the 1980s before becoming a pioneer of iPhone and iPad art in the 2010s. [1, 2]
Legacy & Cultural Impact
Hockney was a revolutionary cultural icon who integrated bold, tender themes of gay domestic life into his work at a time when homosexual relationships were still criminalized in the UK. His distinctive personal style—platinum hair, round spectacles, and vibrant attire—cemented him as "British art's first pop star". [
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In 2018, his painting
Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold for $90.3 million at Christie's, briefly breaking the auction record for the most expensive work by a living artist. He turned down a knighthood multiple times but accepted Queen Elizabeth II's invitation to the exclusive
Order of Merit in 2012. True to his playful nature, he famously attended a palace luncheon wearing bright yellow Crocs. [
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His final major exhibition series, including the monumental 70-meter iPad frieze
A Year in Normandie, was featured at London's Serpentine North Gallery. [
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Watch this exhibition overview from the Serpentine Gallery to see how Hockney translated his signature focus on seasonal change and visual perspective using modern digital tools:
Would you like to explore
specific paintings from his catalog, dive deeper into his
iPad drawing techniques, or learn about his controversial art history book,
Secret Knowledge? [
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