David Hockney: A life in colour

David Hockney <1937–2026>

Few artists have made looking at the world feel quite so urgent — or so joyful. From the sun-drenched pools of California to the electric greens of the Yorkshire Wolds, Hockney spent a lifetime insisting that seeing was the whole point.

And yet, for all his fame, he was famously unbothered by the spotlight himself. “I have the vanity of an artist,” he said in a Tate interview. “I want my work to be seen. But I don’t necessarily have to be seen.”

There’s a rare generosity in that — a belief that the work, once made, belongs to whoever encounters it. That the painting matters more than the painter’s presence in the room.

Thank you, David. The work will keep doing the talking.