Culture News

David Hockney dies at 88: the painter of pools and iPads, remembered on three continents

David Hockney, one of Britain's best-known artists, died at his home in London on Thursday, June 11, aged 88, less than a month before his 89th birthday. His publicist, Erica Bolton, announced the death on Friday, June 12, and said he “passed away peacefully at home.” No cause was given, Al Jazeera and PBS News reported.

Hockney was “one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries.” — Erica Bolton, via Al Jazeera

Born in Bradford in 1937, Hockney trained at Bradford School of Art and the Royal College of Art, became a leading figure of 1960s Pop art and moved to California in 1964, where his swimming-pool paintings made his name. Al Jazeera noted that he drew on iPads from their 2010 release and that Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold for $90.3 million in 2018, a record for a living artist until Jeff Koons's Rabbit overtook it a year later.

PBS News recalled his 2017 Tate Britain show, which drew about half a million visitors, his 2018 stained-glass window at Westminster Abbey and his move to Normandy in 2019, and quoted him in 2017: “It's my work that keeps me young.” Malaysia's Bernama listed his honours, including the Companion of Honour in 1997 and France's Légion d'honneur earlier this year, and said a Serpentine Gallery show of new works was on display when he died, with shows at the Tate and Oslo's Munch Museum in development.

How each outlet framed it

• Al Jazeera — the career arc, from Pop art to digital drawing and a record price.
• PBS News — Hockney in his own words, from decades of interviews.
• Bernama — honours and the work still in progress.

What happened next: Days later at Art Basel, US gallery Gray sold a Hockney for $8.5 million, Malay Mail reported.