David Hockney RA British, 1937-2026

Overview
View works. David Hockney RA, Landscape with a Plant, 1986
Landscape with a Plant, 1986
View works

David Hockney OM CH RA, born 1937, studied at Bradford School of Art from 1953 to 1957 and the Royal College of Art from 1959 until 1962. Hockney, an active artist up until the end of his life was one of the most prolific, revered and recognised artists of his generation.

 

He was awarded the Royal College of Art gold medal in 1962 in recognition of his mastery as a draughtsman and his innovative paintings. His early work was stylistically diverse, combining graffiti-like images with quotations from the poetry of Walt Whitman.

 

Hockney moved to Los Angeles in 1963. He produced highly evocative, sometimes homoerotic, iconic images of urban life. By the late 1960s his work had become more naturalistic but it was always characterised by Hockney’s alertness to the psychological and emotional resonance of his subject matter.

 

Hockney’s work also includes landscapes, photography, printmaking and stage designs for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera and the Los Angeles Music Centre Opera.

 

Recent solo exhibitions have included the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2012), and Galerie Lelong, Paris (2013). The Royal Academy’s blockbuster exhibition - David Hockney: A Bigger Picture in 2012, featuring large-scale works inspired by the East Yorkshire landscape. In 2025 Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris exhibited over 400 works by Hockney.

 

Works
  • David Hockney RA, Remember that you Cannot Look at the Sun or Death for very Long, 2021
    David Hockney RA
    Remember that you Cannot Look at the Sun or Death for very Long, 2021
    ipad drawing. Lithograph with single silk screen overlay on paper
    edition of 3000
    89.4 x 25.4cm
    unsigned
  • David Hockney RA, Small Dogs, 1995
    David Hockney RA
    Small Dogs, 1995
    aquatint, edition of 80
    signed
    40 x 55cm
  • David Hockney RA, Landscape with a Plant, 1986
    David Hockney RA
    Landscape with a Plant, 1986
    original print on 100% rag Arches 120g laid paper
    edition of 50
    27.9 x 43.2cm
    signed
  • David Hockney RA, Man Reading Stendahl, 1986
    David Hockney RA
    Man Reading Stendahl, 1986
    original print on 100% rag Arches 120g laid paper
    35.6 x 21.6cm
    signed
  • David Hockney RA, A Bigger Book
    David Hockney RA
    A Bigger Book
    Sumo Book
    Publisher: Taschen.
    Limited edition of 9000.
    Signed by David Hockney

    Hardcover, 50 x 70cm, 498 pages, 13 fold-outs, with an adjustable bookstand designed by Marc Newson, plus an illustrated 680-page chronology book.
Publications