Legendary British artist David Hockney dead at 88
The legendary British artist David Hockney has died aged 88, a representative has confirmed.
Hockney, who was due to turn 89 next month, died peacefully at his home in London on June 11th, 2026.
A spokesperson sadly confirmed, “The celebrated British artist David Hockney, one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries, passed away peacefully at home on 11 June 2026, one month short of his 89th birthday.”
No cause of death has been revealed.
Hockney, who was born in Bradford in 1937, leaves behind one of the richest cultural legacies of any British artist in history, shaping both the 20th and 21st centuries in his artistic image.
He came from humble Yorkshire beginnings, the fourth of five children, and from an early age, with the support of his family, was encouraged to follow his artistic dreams.
His career, which spanned seven decades, began when he enrolled in the Royal College of Art in 1959, where he studied for three years before moving to California in the 1960s and establishing himself as one of the leading names in the contemporary art sphere.
He once explained of how the move to California unleashed a new side to him, which he expressed in his art, sharing, “I had spent the first 20 years of my life in the gothic gloom of the North. Here I felt free.”
Among his most prominent works include Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), which he created in May 1972, which depicts a man swimming in a pool in St-Tropez while another man, fully clothed, watches over him.
In 2019, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) made history when it was sold for $90 million at a Christie’s auction, which made it the most valuable artwork to be sold by a living artist.
Meanwhile, A Bigger Splash, which Hockney created in 1967, is his most recognisable work and embodies his trademark style in a singular piece. The famous creation has the permanent pride of place at Tate Britain in London.
Director Luca Guadagnino later named his 2015 movie A Bigger Splash in tribute to Hockney’s famous work.
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Poignantly, Hockney, who was an openly gay man at a time when homosexuality was illegal in the United Kingdom, used his art as an exploration of his sexuality in works such as We Two Boys Together Clinging, which he made six years before the Sexual Offences Act 1967 legalised homosexuality.
During a 2006 interview with The Guardian, “Hockney said of the revolutionary celebration of homosexuality in his early work, What one must remember about some of these pictures is that they were partly propaganda of something that hadn’t been propagandised, especially among students, as a subject: homosexuality. I felt it should be done.”
He powerfully added, “Nobody else would use it as a subject because it was a part of me. It was a subject I could treat humourously. I loved the line, ‘we two boys together clinging’; it’s a marvellous, beautiful, poetic line.”
Hockney remained active until the very end, refusing to retire and wanting to ensure that he used every day wisely.
In the closing chapters of his life, Hockney, who continued to have his finger on the pulse rather than being stuck in the past, began creating art with an iPad, which helped legitimise it as a digital tool for artistic endeavours.
In an honest conversation with The Telegraph in 2025, Hockney explained how his work ethic in his later years was due to him being aware that his days were finite, admitting, “I don’t know how long I’m going to live. But I assume I’ll die soon, rather than later, and so I want to work every day. I do. Well, I’ve always worked every day, but now.”
During his later years, Hockney lived in Normandy, France, before returning to the UK in 2023 to live in London, which is where he died.
For many years, he resided in the coastal East Yorkshire town of Bridlington, which is where his assistant, Dominic Elliott, tragically died at his residence in 2013. Elliott’s passing was ruled by an inquest to be death by misadventure.
Following the tragedy, which Hockney called an “awful time”, the artist didn’t paint for four months, admitting that he “nearly gave up”, and he also left Bridlington.
Despite his immaculate artistic legacy, which was the works of countless exhibitions, Hockney preferred to look forwards rather than backwards, once stating, “It’s always just what I’m doing now. I don’t reflect too much. I live now. It’s always now.”
Hockney is survived by his companion, Jean-Pierre De Lima.
This is a developing story and is being updated live.
