David Hockney, Who Restored the Human Form to Art, Dies at 88
The New York Times • • nation
Key Points:
- David Hockney, the influential English artist known for his figurative and narrative paintings, died peacefully at his home in London at the age of 88.
- Hockney, originally from Yorkshire, spent many years in Los Angeles, where his art captured the city's sun-soaked atmosphere and he identified as an "English Los Angeleno."
- He was notable for incorporating openly gay content in his work and publicly opposing censorship of homosexual imagery during a time when such themes were often suppressed.
- Despite his advancing age and declining health, Hockney continued to paint from his London studio, even after a major retrospective of his work closed in Paris nine months before his death.
- His art marked a return to figurative and narrative styles in the late 1950s and 1960s, challenging the dominance of abstraction and influencing trans-Atlantic art trends.