One of David Hockney\u2019s favourite stories concerned a ceramic owl made by Picasso. Standing before it in contemplation, he would point out that a stuffed owl contains infinitely more information than Picasso\u2019s sculpture. A stuffed bird preserves the details of plumage, coloration, and anatomy with scientific accuracy, while Picasso\u2019s owl has none of those things. But in Hockney\u2019s view, the artist\u2019s rendition possessed something the stuffed bird lacked\u2014the experience of the human gaze.<\/p>\n
Hockney, who died last week at the age of 88, spent over seven decades making pictures. During that time he became one of the most recognisable artists in the world. His iconic images of swimming pools became emblems of California. His psychologically penetrating double portraits held their own against those of Freud and Bacon\u2014the most unsparing figurative painters of the postwar period\u2014but he brought a lightness of touch to his work that neither of those artists managed. His Yorkshire landscapes transformed an unfashionable genre into one of the most ambitious artistic projects of recent decades. He designed opera sets, experimented with photography and film, investigated the optical techniques of the Old Masters, and in his seventies, embraced the iPad with the enthusiasm of a schoolboy. Whatever he was working on, Hockney pursued the same question: what can a picture reveal about the world that ordinary looking leaves unseen?<\/p>\n
David Hockney <\/p>\n
Beach umbrella \u2014 Wild at Heart (@emmanu_elle_) June 21, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Many television and print tributes to the late master have ignored this question, preferring to dwell on the deceptively objective measure of the art market. They mention the record-breaking 2018 auction sale, in which Hockney\u2019s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)<\/a> (1972)\u00a0sold for over US$90 million, making him the world\u2019s most expensive living artist. That distinction was short-lived\u2014Jeff Koons reclaimed the title within months with his fabricated sculpture. Mike Winkelmann, aka Beeple, entered the value conversation with his algorithmically assembled NFT, which sold for nearly US$70 million in 2021\u2014proving that the only thing to be learned from auction-price rankings is how the market flattens widely disparate phenomena in financial terms.<\/p>\n This article is for paying subscribers only. Already have an account? Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n
1971 pic.twitter.com\/UfvWNjfrwV<\/a><\/p>\n
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