Game-Changing British Artist David Hockney Has Died At The Age Of 88

The pioneering British artist David Hockney has died at the age of 88.

On Friday morning, his publicist, Erica Bolton, announced that the legendary painter had died at his home the previous day.

Her statement read: “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.”

Born in Bradford in the July of 1937, David studied as a young man at the Royal College of Art, before making the move to California.

First making a name for himself in the 1960s as a leading figure in the pop art movement, David became synonymous with his brightly-coloured swimming pool paintings in the early years of his professional art career.

His other most notable works included portraits using various media of key figures in his personal life – including family members, friends and lovers – many of whom he revisited numerous times over the course of his decades-long career in different works.

During his lifetime, he repeatedly stated that his ethos when it came to art was to “paint the things you love”.

In 2018, he set a new record when his painting Portrait Of An Artist (Pool With Two Figures) sold at an auction for around £70 million, the highest figure ever for a work by a living artist.

His accolades included the Alfred Toepfer Foundation’s Shakespeare prize and being named Britain’s most influential artist in a 2012 poll of painters and sculptors.

David was also appointed to the Order of Merit in 2012, having declined a knighthood years earlier, claiming in the early 1990s that he didn’t “rate prizes”.

An exhibition of recent paintings by David is currently on display at London’s Serpentine gallery.