LEGENDARY Bradford artist David Hockney has died.
A statement said: “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.”
Bradford roots
Hockney was born in Bradford on July 9 1937, the fourth of five children in a working class family.
His father Kenneth was an accountant’s clerk who painted “Ban the Bomb” posters for local peace marchers, while his mother Laura was a Methodist and strict vegetarian.
At the age of just 11 he decided he wanted to be an artist, an ambition which was not encouraged by his teachers at Bradford Grammar School, but with the support of his parents, he entered the local art college.
From there he went to the Royal College of Art in London where he was mocked for his Yorkshire accent. For his part, he was not impressed by the abilities of his tormentors.
“I’d look at their drawings and think if I drew like that I’d keep my mouth shut,” he later recalled.
National treasure
From the azure blue swimming pools of California to the lush green landscapes of his native Yorkshire, David Hockney’s art was filled with colour and light.
Over the course of more than seven decades his joyful, optimistic vision made him one of the world’s most popular artists responsible for some of the most memorable images of the 20th and 21st centuries.
In 2018, his painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) was sold at auction in New York for 90 million dollars (£70 million) – smashing the then record for a work by a living artist.
Long seen as a “national treasure”, with his huge round spectacles, gentle Yorkshire burr and bleached blond hair – replaced in later years by a series of flat caps – his image was almost as distinctive and familiar as his paintings.
