David Hockney Timeline

David Hockney 49

1937 David Hockney born in Bradford 9 July 1937 David Hockney is born on 9 July 1937 in Bradford, Yorkshire, the fourth of five children of an accountant's clerk. He grows up in a working-class household that values art, music and pacifism.
1944 – 1953 Childhood in Bradford Early artistic talent Hockney attends Wellington Primary School and Bradford Grammar School, where his drawing ability is noticed early. His pacifist upbringing and a lifelong love of drawing shape his outlook from childhood.
1953 – 1957 Studies at Bradford School of Art Foundation training Hockney studies at Bradford School of Art, where his talent for drawing is quickly recognised. He develops a lifelong interest in portraiture and observational drawing during these formative years.
1957 – 1959 Alternative national service Conscientious objector, hospital work As a conscientious objector influenced by his father's pacifism, Hockney undertakes alternative national service working as a hospital orderly, an experience that later informs some of his early figurative work.
1959 – 1962 Royal College of Art Early Pop Art circle Hockney studies at the Royal College of Art in London alongside artists such as R.B. Kitaj and Allen Jones, becoming associated with the emerging British pop art movement. His graduation work breaks with convention and announces an openly gay artistic voice years before decriminalisation in the UK.
1961 First trip to New York Encounters American art and Whitman's poetry Hockney makes his first visit to New York, where he is struck by the scale and energy of American art and culture, an experience that feeds directly into his work and his growing fascination with America.
1961 We Two Boys Together Clinging Early gay-themed painting Hockney paints We Two Boys Together Clinging, its title taken from a Walt Whitman poem, openly addressing same-sex desire at a time when homosexuality remains illegal in Britain. It is among the earliest works of his career to do so.
1962 Graduates from the Royal College of Art Gold medal dispute Hockney completes his studies at the Royal College of Art. When he refuses to write a required essay, arguing he should be assessed on his art alone, the college changes its regulations rather than fail him, and he graduates with the institution's gold medal.
1963 First visit to Los Angeles California captivates him Hockney visits Los Angeles for the first time, drawn by photographs of swimming pools, palm trees and modernist houses he had seen in magazines. The city immediately captures his imagination.
1964 Moves to Los Angeles California beckons Drawn by photographs of swimming pools and modernist architecture, Hockney moves to Los Angeles, which becomes a second home and the subject of some of his most celebrated work for the next decades.
1966 Meets Peter Schlesinger Muse, model and partner Hockney meets the young American artist Peter Schlesinger in Los Angeles. Schlesinger becomes his partner and the subject of numerous paintings, drawings and photographs over the following years.
1967 A Bigger Splash Iconic swimming pool painting Hockney completes A Bigger Splash, a large acrylic painting of a Californian swimming pool the instant after a diver has vanished beneath the surface. It becomes one of the defining images of 1960s pop art and of his career.
1967 Wins the John Moores Painting Prize Major British art award Hockney wins the prestigious John Moores Painting Prize in Liverpool, one of the most significant British art awards of the period, with his painting Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool.
1968 American Collectors Double portrait of Fred and Marcia Weisman Hockney paints American Collectors (Fred and Marcia Weisman), a sharply observed double portrait of Los Angeles art collectors posed amid their sculpture collection, now held by the Art Institute of Chicago.
1970 – 1971 Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy Double portrait masterpiece Hockney paints Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy, a large double portrait of fashion designers Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell with their cat in their London flat. It becomes one of the best-loved British paintings of the 20th century and is acquired by the Tate.
1971 – 1972 Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) Future record-breaking painting Hockney paints Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), depicting a swimmer approaching the edge of a pool watched by a standing figure. Decades later it becomes one of the most expensive paintings by a living artist ever sold at auction.
1973 Relationship with Schlesinger ends Personal upheaval Hockney's relationship with Peter Schlesinger ends, a painful period for the artist that is later documented on film.
1974 "A Bigger Splash" documentary released Jack Hazan film Director Jack Hazan releases A Bigger Splash, a part-documentary, part-staged film following Hockney through the breakdown of his relationship with Peter Schlesinger, blending real footage with dramatised scenes.
1975 Designs for Glyndebourne Stage designs for The Rake's Progress Hockney designs the sets and costumes for Stravinsky's opera The Rake's Progress at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the first of several major theatrical and operatic commissions that occupy him over the following decades.
1978 New studio in Nichols Canyon Los Angeles base expands Hockney establishes a larger studio and home in Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles, providing the space for increasingly ambitious work in painting, photography and stage design over the following decade.
1980 Designs for the Metropolitan Opera Triple bill of French works Hockney designs sets and costumes for a triple bill of short French operas and ballets — works by Satie, Poulenc and Ravel — at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, extending his reputation as a stage designer to one of the world's leading opera houses.
1981 Travels to China "China Diary" with Stephen Spender Hockney travels through China with the poet Stephen Spender, producing drawings and photographs that are later published together with Spender's writing as China Diary.
1982 – 1986 Photographic "joiners" Collaged Polaroid and photo works Hockney develops his "joiners" — composite images assembled from dozens or hundreds of individual photographs, exploring multiple viewpoints and the passage of time. Pearblossom Highway, a large joiner of a Californian desert road, becomes one of the best-known examples.
1985 Designs French Vogue Christmas issue Early digital art experiment Hockney uses an early Quantel Paintbox computer system to create artwork for the Christmas issue of French Vogue, among his first forays into digital image-making, decades before his celebrated iPad drawings.
1986 Pearblossom Highway Landmark photographic joiner Hockney completes Pearblossom Highway, 11–18th April 1986, #2, a large composite photographic work assembled from hundreds of separate images of a Californian desert road junction, now one of his most reproduced photographic works.
1987 Designs Tristan und Isolde Los Angeles Opera Hockney designs an elaborate, vividly coloured production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde for the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, one of his most ambitious operatic design projects.
1988 – 1989 Major retrospective tour LACMA, Met, Tate A large retrospective of Hockney's work opens at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and travels to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Tate Gallery in London, confirming his international standing.
1995 Elected Royal Academician RA honour Hockney is elected a Royal Academician, joining the Royal Academy of Arts as one of its most prominent members.
1997 Appointed Companion of Honour CH awarded Hockney is appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, one of the United Kingdom's most exclusive honours, recognising his contribution to the arts.
1997 Returns to East Yorkshire Landscape painting in Bridlington Hockney spends increasing time in his native East Yorkshire, beginning an extended exploration of the local landscape — the Wolds, hedgerows and changing seasons — in large-scale paintings made en plein air.
1999 Begins "Secret Knowledge" research Old Masters and optical devices Hockney begins an extended investigation into whether Renaissance and later painters used optical devices such as the camera lucida and camera obscura to achieve their precise realism, a theory that proves both influential and controversial among art historians.
2001 Publishes "Secret Knowledge" Book on Old Master techniques Hockney publishes Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, setting out his research and arguments about optical aids in historical painting, sparking wide debate in the art world.
2005 Major Yorkshire landscape series Midsummer: East Yorkshire Hockney produces an extended series of large plein-air landscape paintings of the East Yorkshire Wolds, including Midsummer: East Yorkshire, marking a renewed focus on landscape painting after years in Los Angeles.
2007 Bigger Trees Near Warter Monumental Yorkshire landscape Hockney completes Bigger Trees Near Warter, at the time the largest painting he has made, depicting a Yorkshire woodland across 50 canvases. He donates it to Tate Britain.
2009 Begins drawing on the iPhone Brushes app Hockney begins making drawings on his iPhone using the Brushes app, often sending finished works as the day's "morning drawing" to friends — an early sign of his enthusiastic embrace of digital tools.
2010 "Fresh Flowers" exhibition iPhone and iPad drawings in Paris An exhibition of Hockney's iPhone and iPad drawings, Fresh Flowers, is shown at the Fondation Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent in Paris, introducing his digital still lifes to a wide audience.
2011 "The Arrival of Spring" begins iPad drawings at Woldgate Hockney begins an extended series of iPad drawings titled The Arrival of Spring, recording the changing seasons along Woldgate, a Yorkshire lane near his studio, day by day.
2012 A Bigger Picture & Order of Merit Royal Academy retrospective The Royal Academy stages A Bigger Picture, a major exhibition of Hockney's Yorkshire landscapes including new works made on the iPad, drawing record crowds. The same year he is appointed to the Order of Merit, one of the UK's most exclusive honours.
2013 Death of David Hockney's studio assistant Tragedy at Bridlington home Dominic Elliott, a young assistant at Hockney's Bridlington studio, dies after being taken ill at the artist's home, a personal tragedy that deeply affects Hockney and his close circle.
2017 80th birthday retrospective Tate, Pompidou & the Met To mark his 80th birthday, a major retrospective of Hockney's career travels from Tate Britain to the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, cementing his status as one of the most popular living artists.
2018 Auction record for a living artist $90.3 million sale Hockney's 1972 painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sells at auction for $90.3 million, becoming, for a time, the most expensive work by a living artist ever sold.
2019 Moves to Normandy New studio in France Hockney relocates his studio to Normandy, France, where he paints the changing seasons around his cottage and continues to work extensively on the iPad, including a series marking the arrival of spring.
2020 "Do remember they can't cancel the spring" Lockdown iPad drawings shared widely During the early Covid-19 lockdowns, Hockney shares a series of vivid iPad drawings of spring arriving at his Normandy home, accompanied by the message "Do remember they can't cancel the spring," offering comfort to a global audience.
2021 Royal Academy exhibition The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 The Royal Academy presents The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020, a major exhibition of the iPad drawings Hockney made during lockdown, drawing large audiences as pandemic restrictions ease.
2023 "Bigger & Closer" opens Immersive exhibition at Lightroom, London Hockney's first ever immersive digital exhibition, Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away), opens at the new Lightroom venue in London, projecting his work at vast scale with music and narration.
2024 Largest-ever retrospective Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris The Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris stages the largest exhibition of Hockney's work ever held, spanning seven decades of painting, photography, drawing and digital works across its galleries.
2025 Continues working in Normandy Painting into his late eighties Into his late eighties, Hockney continues to paint and draw daily at his Normandy home, producing new landscape and still-life work and remaining as prolific as ever.
2026 Final months Returns to London In his final months, Hockney is based at his home in London, where he dies on 11 June 2026.
2026 Death 11 June 2026 David Hockney dies peacefully at his home in London on 11 June 2026, one month before what would have been his 89th birthday. He is survived by his long-time partner Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima.