Leading contemporary artist David Hockney has died at the age of 88. PA PhotoLeading contemporary artist David Hockney has died at the age of 88. PA PhotoCelebrated Northerner's work spanned swimming pools of California to English landscapesCelebrated British artist David Hockney, whose use of colour and technology made him one of the most influential figures in art, has died at the age of 88.A statement from Hockney's staff 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.”In 2018, his painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) was sold at auction in New York for $90 million (£70 million) – smashing the then record for a work by a living artist.Long viewed as a “national treasure”, with his huge round glasses, 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.Queen Elizabeth II presents David Hockney with the Order of Merit at Buckingham Palace in May 2012. AFPInfoWhile liberally drawing on the art of the past – from the Renaissance masters to the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock – Hockney consistently pursued his own path, refusing to conform to the artistic fashions of the day.As an art school rebel, he was initially denied a diploma, in part because he refused to complete an essay assignment, insisting he should be judged on his art alone.At the start of his career, when the dominant strand in the avant-garde was abstraction, he bucked the trend painting figuratively, often in bright colours with a primitivist style.Having grown up under the northern English skies of industrial Bradford, he was enthralled by the light and freedoms of 1960s California, making the state his main home for 40 years.David Hockney at the Orangerie museum in Paris, in October 2021, in front of his 91-metre painting A Year in Normandy. AFPInfoIn later years, he embraced technology, drawing and painting flowers and landscapes on an iPad. When some critics decried his embrace of landscape painting as a retrograde step, he made clear he “didn’t give a damn” about such carping.Updated: June 12, 2026, 10:27 AM