![\"Debbie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/150887ea18bed61d421e8c6a4aec69ed32583589.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
June 13, 2026 \u2014 10:24am<\/p>\n
Save<\/p>\n
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just going to go on working \u2019til I fall over.\u201d So said David Hockney, the renowned British artist, at the opening of his exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria<\/a> in 2016.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t go out much. I\u2019m too deaf to go out of an evening \u2026 I just work. I\u2019m perfectly happy.\u201d<\/p>\n Hockney, who has died aged 88<\/a>, produced some of the most recognisable works of contemporary art of the 20th century.<\/p>\n He died on Thursday in the UK, according to a statement released by his representatives: \u201cThe celebrated British artist David Hockney, one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries, passed away peacefully at home on 11 June 2026, one month short of his 89th birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n The Yorkshireman was born in 1937 in Bradford in England\u2019s industrial north, but it was his sun-soaked, poolside images of California that he became best known for (along with his bleached blond hair and signature round glasses). His 1972 painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold for $124 million<\/a> at auction in 2018, then a record for the most expensive work by a living artist.<\/p>\n True to his word, he kept on working almost until the last, including on his final major show, at the Louis Vuitton Foundation<\/a> in Paris in 2025.<\/p>\n As his health failed he used a wheelchair to paint at his London studio in the lead-up to last year\u2019s retrospective, he told The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI just go on with my work,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I come back from Paris, I\u2019m going to carry on painting.\u201d<\/p>\n The medium the painter employed changed radically over the decades: as an artist he was far ahead of his peers in his early and continued embrace of technology to make and display his works.<\/p>\n The 1200 artworks in his NGV show were from the prior 10 years of Hockney\u2019s output, including many displayed on iPhones and others on large banks of screens, which recorded every brushstroke in vivid colour and detail.<\/p>\n \u201cI first used a computer in 1986,\u201d he told this masthead in 2016. \u201cDrawing on it was OK but when you\u2019d finish \u2026 the drawing itself [appeared] two minutes later. Just the lines were there.\u201d<\/p>\n The arrival in 2009 of the iPhone then opened up a new world of creative possibilities through the Brush application, and more still with the iPad in 2010.<\/p>\n \u201cI started drawing and I quickly realised this was a marvellous new medium \u2026 You could actually work in the dark, you could do a lot of things.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you draw on an iPad, you can play it back, every mark is recorded.\u201d<\/p>\n Hockney\u2019s brother John, one of his four siblings, migrated to Australia in the late 1960s and in 2019 published a book,The Hockneys: Never Worry What the Neighbours Think<\/a> about his family and famous sibling.<\/p>\n At the NGV opening, John Hockney, whose portrait featured in the show, spoke with obvious pride in his brother\u2019s artistry.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s incredible, he becomes a totally different person with a brush in his hand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe screws his eyes up \u2026 he doesn\u2019t rest, his eyes are on the portraits he\u2019s actually doing. He\u2019s totally focused, nothing else matters.\u201d<\/p>\n He said he considered the Melbourne exhibition the greatest showcase he had seen of his brother\u2019s work.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen his shows in San Francisco and elsewhere, but this is far, far the best ever.\u201d<\/p>\n Want more art and design? We\u2019ve got youSave<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/44ee5733bdeab76fb4cdd9922751ab5b3ab2f448.jpeg\")
The artist at the opening of his 2016 exhibition David Hockney: Current, at the National Gallery of Victoria.Joe Armao<\/p>\n![\"Hockney\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781433442_618_18f7342c3740eb462f0606e267791d3e72c2af3a.jpeg\")
Hockney\u2019s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972) set a record when it sold at auction in 2018.<\/p>\n![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/3c7789e4b0105187afeafff5a41880ffb63a8638.jpeg\")
David Hockney in Melbourne for the 2016 launch of his NGV show.Joe Armao<\/p>\n