David Hockney, one of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, died on Thursday at his home in London. He was 88.
His publicist Erica Bolton confirmed the death in a statement on Friday. She described Hockney as "one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries" and said he had "passed away peacefully at home." She did not give a cause of death, according to Al Jazeera.
"His seven-decade career and prolific oeuvre was characterised by his multimedia approach in image making, an intellectual inquiry into the nature of depiction and perspective, and a sustained commitment to celebrating and portraying the world around him," Bolton's statement added.
Hockney was born in 1937 in west Yorkshire, northern England. He trained at the Bradford School of Art and then at London's Royal College, from which he graduated with a Gold Medal distinction. A conscientious objector, he performed his military service as a hospital orderly.
He came of age professionally as one of the leading artists in the Pop art movement of the 1960s. He moved to California in 1964, and his paintings from that period captured the carefree energy of the state: sun-drenched swimming pools, patterned light bouncing off water and windows, and human forms rendered in flattened, simplified shapes in matte acrylic paint. With his trademark round glasses and bleached-blond hair, he was a recognizable figure in the British and American art scenes before he turned 30.
His work later turned to the bucolic landscapes of his native Yorkshire. He never stopped experimenting. He embraced iPads when they first became available in 2010 and worked with developers to create custom-made apps, according to a National Portrait Gallery profile.
In 2018, his iconic painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold for $90.3 million in New York, setting a new auction record for a living artist. He was unseated by Jeff Koons' Rabbit the following year.
Hockney is survived by his longtime partner Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima. He kept painting, experimenting, and exhibiting right up until his death.
