Renowned British artist David Hockney dies aged 88
Key takeaways
- Hockney is considered an influential and defining figure in 20th and 21st century contemporary painting.
- Born in 1937 in west Yorkshire, northern England, Hockney trained at the Bradford School of Art in the region and then at London’s Royal College, from which he graduated with a Gold Medal distinction.
- A conscientious objector who did his military service as a hospital orderly, Hockney went against the conventions of post-war Britain, realising at an early age that he was gay and that he wanted to be an artist.
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Hockney is considered an influential and defining figure in 20th and 21st century contemporary painting.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogle Add Al Jazeera on Googleinfo British painter David Hockney poses at the Orangerie museum in Paris, on October 7, 2021, in front of his painting, A year in Normandy, a 91-metre- (300ft-) long artwork painted during the lockdown in 2020 [AFP]By AFP and APPublished On 12 Jun 202612 Jun 2026British artist David Hockney, considered one of the most influential and defining figures in contemporary art, whose paintings captured the world in brilliant colour, has died aged 88.
Describing Hockney as “one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries”, his publicist Erica Bolton said in a statement on Friday that he had “passed away peacefully at home” in London a day earlier. She did not give a cause of death.