David Hockney, the beloved British artist, declined multiple requests to paint Queen Elizabeth II, saying he only painted people he knew well. He also criticized Lucian Freud's royal portrait and was a lifelong smoker who opposed the smoking ban. His seven-decade career spanned painting, photography, digital art, and more, capturing scenes from California to Yorkshire.
David Hockney , the beloved British artist who died at 88, was known for his frank opinions and refusal to conform. He turned down several requests to paint Queen Elizabeth II, stating that he only painted people he knew well.
He also dismissed Lucian Freud's 2001 portrait of the Queen as merely 'OK', arguing that Freud failed to capture the exceptional quality of her skin. Hockney's outspokenness extended to politics: he despised the smoking ban introduced by Tony Blair's government and had harsh words for Blair and Gordon Brown, whom he called a 'dreary aesthetic Calvinistic prig'.
He rarely appeared without a cigarette and claimed that smoking was part of his creative process, noting that great artists like Picasso, Matisse, and Turner were also lifelong smokers. He would light up between painting sessions, using the moments to reflect on his work. Hockney's career spanned seven decades and countless media: painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, stage design, and later digital works on iPad. He became famous for sun-drenched Californian scenes and later for immersive depictions of his native Yorkshire.
He constantly reinvented himself, a trait he inherited from his parents. His mother Laura was a vegetarian in an era when that was rare, and his father Kenneth lived by the motto 'Never worry what the neighbours think'. Kenneth, an accounts clerk and inventor, had eccentric habits such as keeping 20 pairs of false teeth labeled for different purposes.
He also built a business selling refurbished bicycles and prams, and his skilled painting of decorative lines inspired young David to become an artist. Hockney was born in 1937, two years before World War II. Paper rationing forced him to draw on any available surface, including hymnbooks. He would wake early to draw in the margins of newspapers.
At Bradford Grammar School, he wore a secondhand blazer due to the family's financial struggles. When he attended the Royal College of Art in London in 1959, his Yorkshire accent was mocked, but he retorted that if his classmates drew like him, they would keep quiet. He remained confident in his abilities throughout his life.
His father's pacifism during the war had led to harassment, with neighbors painting 'coward' on their wall each night; his father would wash it off before work. This resilience marked the family. Hockney's older brother Paul recalled finding their father's collection of 20 pairs of false teeth, each labeled for specific uses like 'good for eating lettuce'. These eccentricities shaped Hockney's own nonconformist spirit.
Hockney's artistic output was enormous. His early works like 'We Two Boys Together Clinging' (1961) explored homoerotic themes at a time when homosexuality was illegal in Britain. He moved to Los Angeles in 1964, where the light and lifestyle inspired his iconic pool paintings.
'A Bigger Splash' (1967) remains one of his most recognizable works. He also ventured into photocollages, creating composite images he called 'joiners'. In the 1990s, he returned to Yorkshire, producing large-scale paintings of the changing seasons. In his later years, he embraced digital technology, using iPads to create vivid landscapes during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
His exhibition 'The Arrival of Spring' (2021) showcased these works. Throughout, he maintained that art should be joyful and accessible. He once said, 'The eye is a very greedy organ; it wants to see everything.
' His relentless curiosity kept him innovating until the end. Hockney's legacy is secure as one of Britain's most important artists. His refusal to paint the Queen, his defiance of the smoking ban, and his lifelong commitment to his craft define a man who lived by his own rules. He died peacefully at 88, leaving behind a vast body of work that continues to inspire
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