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Walking through a David Hockney painting in Yorkshire
David Hockney, who sadly passed away today, was one of the most celebrated and influential artists of the modern era. A key figure in the pop art movement of the 1960s, he helped reshape British art and build a bridge towards the postmodern age that followed.
His rise began in 1961 at the Young Contemporaries exhibition, where he appeared alongside future pop art luminaries such as Peter Blake and Pauline Boty. From there, Hockney embarked on a career that constantly defied expectations. Though often associated with pop art, he refused to be confined by any one movement, exploring everything from expressionism, printmaking and photo collage to cubism, plein air painting and, later, digital art on the iPad. Few artists moved so freely between styles and mediums.
Part of what made Hockney such a singular figure was the range of experiences and influences that shaped him. From his upbringing in Bradford and his years at the Royal College of Art to his friendships with fellow artists like RB Kitaj, his life unfolded alongside some of the most important developments in post-war British culture. His work was further enriched by his synaesthesia, which linked sound, colour and shape in his mind, lending many of his paintings their distinctive vibrancy and emotional immediacy.
Among the most beloved chapters of his career was his return to Yorkshire in the 1990s. While spending time with his terminally ill friend Jonathan Silver, Hockney was encouraged to paint the surrounding landscape. The resulting works became some of the defining pieces of his later career, transforming familiar fields, roads and woodlands into scenes bursting with colour, movement and feeling. They were landscapes, but they were also deeply personal reflections on memory, place and belonging.
In 2008, he donated his monumental painting Bigger Trees Near Warter to the Tate. Measuring 15 by 40 feet, it remains one of the most ambitious works of his career. “I thought if I’m going to give something to the Tate I want to give them something really good,” Hockney explained. “I thought this was a good painting because it’s of England.”
Those Yorkshire works remain among his most cherished achievements. Part observation, part memory, they offer a deeply personal portrait of the county he never truly left behind. Even when viewed today, they feel less like paintings and more like invitations into Hockney’s world, confirming a truth he carried throughout his life: you can take the boy out of Yorkshire, but you can never take Yorkshire out of the boy.
Join us as we take a journey through Yorkshire through the eyes of David Hockney, one of Britain’s greatest artists.
