David Hockney

The latest addition to the 'Lives of the Artists' series: highly readable short biographies of the world's greatest artists

David Hockney is the most famous living British artist. And he is arguably one of the more famous American artists as well. Emerging from the north of England in the 1960s, he made quite a splash in Swinging London as a portaitist, and went on to make a even bigger splash in Los Angeles when he moved there in the 1970s. His figurative paintings of the 1970s and 1980s captured the zeitgeist of West Coast living, while he also explored new avenues by constructing mosaics out of polaroids.

By the beginning of the millennium, he returned to his Yorkshire roots, embarking on a new period of painting. This came to an end with the death by misadventure in his home of a young studio assistant in 2013. He went 'home' to LA and has in the intervening years begun a new period of contemplative portraiture.

About the Author

James Cahill is an expert on the influence of Classical antiquity on contemporary art. He has curated exhibitions combining contemporary art and ancient objects at BREESE LITTLE, London (2015) and the Museum of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge (2016). Other contributors include Richard Shone, former Editor of The Burlington Magazine , and Helen Luckett, former Curator at the Hayward Gallery, London.