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Who in the art world has not heard of this guy? Andy Warhol may have been the “idiot savant” but David Hockney is just, well, a savant to most.
Perhaps because Hockney has always been a bit more comfortable with his sexuality than shy, mild-mannered Andy. This is clear in Hockney’s frank portrayal of naked dudes taking showers, lathering up, bending over, etc. Right on, David.
David Hockney is totes English (watch him on the telly, innit!) but his love for California ensured the purchase of two humble abodes in LA. Since the guy is only worth a paltry £37 million.
He’s had a series of very public romances- one of them was made even more public through Jack Kazan’s biopic, A Bigger Splash. Also, he co-created the Hockney-Falco thesis, a theory which basically states that artists like Vermeer and Caravaggio were using optical tools as cheating devices while painting. You can watch AND read more about it in his BBC documentary plus book, Secret Knowledge.
Hockney received a great deal of attention very recently, when his 23 year old assistant died suddenly in his Yorkshire studio in August 2013. It might’ve had something to do with all the acid and the bottle of drain cleaner he had chugged…but according to reports “the inquest still continues." In spite of, or perhaps because of, all the widely broadcasted drama surrounding Hockney’s scandalous life, he continues to be one of the best loved and most successful artists in Britain to date.
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Here is what Wikipedia says about David Hockney
David Hockney (9 July 1937 – 11 June 2026) was an English painter, stage designer and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. He was known for his vivid, stylised realism and championed figurative work, often in a bold style, during a period when abstract art predominated.
Hockney studied at the Royal College of Art before moving to Los Angeles in the 1960s. The light and lifestyle of California had a profound effect on his work; using acrylic paint he worked on large portrait studies before turning to prints and photocollages in his later career. He used digital applications extensively in the final decades of his career and returned to the Yorkshire landscapes of his childhood with large en plein air pieces. He was also a celebrated operatic stage designer. He exhibited internationally with several important retrospectives at leading institutions and was the recipient of major civic and institutional honours. Hockney came out as gay as a young man several years before the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain. He lived between the United Kingdom, France and the United States. In the late 2010s, auction sales established him as the most expensive living artist.
Check out the full Wikipedia article about David Hockney
He's so cute I love him!