Tributes poured in for the 1960s pop art pioneer who established himself as a globally renowned painter and master draughtsman and kept painting, experimenting and exhibiting right up until his death."I think I've something to say to people -- that's why," he told the Daily Telegraph in October in his last major interview.Lauding him as "one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries", his publicist Erica Bolton said he died "peacefully at home" in London on Thursday, a month before his 89th birthday."His seven-decade career and prolific oeuvre was characterised by his multi-media approach in image making, an intellectual inquiry into the nature of depiction and perspective, and a sustained commitment to celebrating and portraying the world around him," her statement added.
Hockney was known for his mastery of colour -- in dress as on the canvas © STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP
Acclaimed worldwide, Britain made him a Companion of Honour in 1997. Earlier this year, Hockney became one of the few non-French citizens to be awarded the highest level of France's main civilian honour, the legion d'honneur."His huge achievement was to make serious painting look effortless," art historian Richard Morris said on X. "He carried forward one of the most sustained investigations into vision, space and representation by any post-war artist. British art has lost a giant."The Pompidou Centre in Paris -- which held landmark Hockney exhibitions in 1999 and 2017 -- said he was "creative to the end of his life by constantly renewing his ideas".The works he leaves behind remain "dazzling, alive and eternal", it added.'Bold'Born the fourth of five children in 1937 in Bradford, northern England, Hockney defied the conventions of post-war Britain, realising young that he was gay and wanted to be an artist.A conscientious objector who did military service as a hospital orderly, he trained at the Bradford School of Art and then at London's Royal College."His early work demonstrated a bold stylistic range, and even then, he was recognised as a master draughtman and a rising star in British art," the college said in a tribute on Instagram.He remained "a defining voice in art across his lifetime," it added, praising his "boundless curiosity" and "mastery of colour".
