David Hockney
1937–
Introduction
David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Hockney has owned residences and studios in Bridlington and London as well as two residences in California, where he has lived intermittently since 1964: one in the Hollywood Hills, one in Malibu. He has an office and stores his archives on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, California.
On 15 November 2018, Hockney's 1972 work Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold at Christie's auction house in New York City for $90 million (£70 million), becoming the most expensive artwork by a living artist sold at auction. It broke the previous record which was set by the 2013 sale of Jeff Koons' Balloon Dog (Orange) for $58.4 million. Hockney held the record until 15 May 2019 when Koons reclaimed the honour by selling his Rabbit for more than $91 million at Christie's in New York.
Wikidata identifier
Q159907
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed May 15, 2025.
Introduction
An accomplished painter, printmaker, photographer, and scenographer, David Hockney is probably one of the most versatile British artists of the 20th century. Between 1953 and 1957, he studied at the Bradford School of Art, producing portraits and observations of his surroundings. He began his post-doctorate studies at the Royal College of Art London in 1959, where he turned first to the discipline of drawing from life. Throughout his career, the human figure would prove to be Hockney's preferred subject matter. During the 1960s, Hockney developed his own personal vision of Pop Art, interjecting playful and ironic elements. In his swimming pool pictures, Hockney juxtaposes accurate renditions of the human form with abstract renditions of water. His photographic work remained unknown to the public until the 1980s, which were then exhibited worldwide. In these works he creates collages of images taken with a Polaroid SX 70 using a cubist idiom. Time, picture surface, repetition, and shifting planes characterize these works.
Country of birth
United Kingdom
Roles
Artist, author, collagist, etcher, graphic artist, illustrator, lithographer, painter, photographer, scenographer, sculptor, teacher
ULAN identifier
500017273
Names
David Hockney
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed May 15, 2025.
