David Hockney in his Paris studio in 1979. Photo by Derek Hudson/Getty Images.
12 June 2026
It was with heavy hearts that all of us at Phillips learned of the passing of David Hockney yesterday at his home in London, less than a month before his 89th birthday. Today, the art world joins together in remembrance and celebration of his remarkable legacy, which will now be cemented in full view.
From his humble beginnings in Yorkshire, Hockney rose to a level of prominence never before seen for an artist. Over seven decades, his cultural impact reached far beyond the walls of the art world, with the aesthetic of both his works and his personality nearly universally recognizable. Arguably the brightest star of British contemporary art, his scenes of sun-drenched Southern California pools and his beloved British landscape are as iconic as his oversized frames, striped rugby shirts, and inextinguishable cigarette. When we imagine the archetype of the modern artist, we see something like David Hockney. And in his works, we see something inviting, welcoming, and joyful, even though he challenged norms and trends, pushing perspective and media to their very limits. A global citizen and queer icon as intimately tied to Los Angeles as he was to Yorkshire, France, and more, Hockney worked across painting, photography, printmaking, and new media — his hand and eye knew no bounds.
The world is very, very beautiful if you look at it. But most people don’t look very much. They scan the ground in front of them so they can walk, but they don’t really look at things incredibly well, with intensity. I do, and I’ve always known that.
—David Hockney
Below, Phillips honors Hockney’s life and work through videos produced by our team — celebrating the legacy of an artist whose works we have been deeply privileged to steward.
A Rake’s Progress and a star in the making
Following his graduation from London’s Royal College of Art — where he emerged as a leading force in the 1961 New Contemporaries exhibition that signaled the arrival of British Pop Art — Hockney embarked on a transformative summer trip to New York. Immersed in the energy of the city and meeting figures like Andy Warhol, he channeled his experiences into A Rake’s Progress (1961–63). This suite of sixteen prints offered a semi-autobiographical, modern reimagining of William Hogarth’s 18th-century morality tale, filtering it through a 20th-century lens that balanced semi-abstract forms with realist details. Inspired equally by the 1951 operatic collaboration between Igor Stravinsky and W.H. Auden, the work presages Hockney's lifelong connection to printmaking and theatrical set design. By the time he claimed a major RCA graduation prize, Britain’s first contemporary artist superstar had officially arrived.
Phillips explored this crucial work in the film below, produced in 2024.
Shattering the lens: The multi-perspective photocollages
As the 1970s progressed, Hockney resisted the art market’s shift toward conceptualism, perfecting a hyper-realist style seen in monumental double portraits like Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy (1970–71). Seeking to break free from the constraints of rigid realism, he began using photography as an aide-memoire, which ultimately evolved into a groundbreaking body of work in its own right. Invited by the Centre Pompidou to exhibit his photographs in 1982, Hockney began experimenting with elaborate Polaroid composites. By clustering dozens of individual, localized snapshots into a unified grid, he created sweeping, multi-perspective panoramic landscapes of the American Southwest. These photocollages rejected the single, static viewpoint of traditional photography, allowing the viewer's eye to move through space and time just as it does in real life.
Hockney continued to explore this approach, as explained in the film below, produced by Phillips in 2023.
New perspectives and the return to Yorkshire
In the late 1990s, Hockney translated the incremental logic of his photographic composites back onto the canvas, turning his attention to the rolling, expansive terrain of East Yorkshire. Settling for a prolonged period in the seaside town of Bridlington, he spent the early 2000s capturing the shifting English seasons on a massive scale. These landscape works are often composed across multiple canvases, utilizing an elevated, quasi-aerial perspective to depict the countryside. These vibrant, immersive landscapes were designed to welcome viewers directly into the space itself, transforming the act of looking into an active partnership.
One such Yorkshire landscape painting was explored in the documentary film below, produced by Phillips in 2024.
Hockney’s continuing impact
What is perhaps most astonishing about the life and work of David Hockney is his relentless curiosity and innate need to create, making work at a rate that rivals any of the most prolific artists in history. Through the years, he never grew old conceptually; he simply adopted new tools and new means to answer the same questions he had asked for seven decades in new ways. The result is a richly varied and personal body of work that will remain timeless. Through all the shifting trends and market swings of the past 70 or so years, museum goers and collectors have always sought out works by David Hockney. And it’s because, above all, his works capture the pure magic of how we see, and give us the permission to look even more deeply and ecstatically.
Discover more:
David Hockney: The Only One with Waves >