David Hockney, One of the World’s Great Artists, Dies at 88

British artist David Hockney died today in London at the age of 88, leaving behind one of the most recognizable bodies of work in late 20th and early 21st century art. Just last year he mounted a major retrospective at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, which drew large crowds throughout its run, and he described it as his best exhibition so far. Known for spending his later years painting outdoors, he even coined its consoling slogan: “They cannot cancel spring.”

Born in 1937 in Bradford, Yorkshire, Hockney studied at the city’s art school and then at London’s Royal College of Art. Over seven decades he became one of the most versatile, rebellious and influential artists of his era, constantly moving between painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, stage design, photo collages and digital media. His work drew on cubism, Pop Art, photography, classical art, film and opera, but always in his own unmistakable way.

He first rose to prominence in 1950s and 1960s Britain, where his early work reflected humor, bravado and a candid exploration of identity and desire as a young gay artist living when male homosexuality was still illegal. His major breakthrough came after he moved to Los Angeles, where the light, pools, modernist houses and sense of freedom shaped his best-known images. Works such as “A Bigger Splash” from 1967 and “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)” from 1972 became icons of modern art, while also prompting criticism that he glorified leisure and privilege.

That criticism did not prevent the market from embracing him. In 2018, “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)” sold for $90.3 million, then a record for a living artist at auction. Museum recognition came early and kept growing, from Whitechapel in 1970, to major retrospectives at LACMA in 1988, the National Portrait Gallery in 2006, the Royal Academy in 2012, and a major international show in 2017 for his 80th birthday. Even in old age, Hockney kept reinventing himself through Yorkshire landscapes, Normandy gardens, opera sets, iPad and iPhone works, and portraits of younger artists and musicians, including Harry Styles, while continuing to probe how vision, perspective and image-making work.