David Hockney was born in Bradford. He studied at the local art college and at the Royal College of Art in London, where he was awarded the Gold Medal. His career was launched on the crest of the Pop Art wave and his work and personality attracted a degree of attention from the outset which has never significantly diminished. In 1963 a visit to Egypt laid the foundations of a recurrent interest in Egyptian art. During the next decade Hockney travelled extensively and his work reflected his appetite for new environments and his capacity for exploring what he discovered. He lived in Paris in the early 1970s but has made California his home since then. Hockney’s work has moved through a wide range of styles and he has throughout his career been fascinated by techniques and materials. He has explored the potential of acrylic, oil, crayon, pastel, pen, photography, stage design, moulded paper pulp, computer imaging and every kind of graphic medium. He has however always held a brief for the ‘subject’ in his work, contrary to the fashion for ‘abstraction’ and ‘expressionism’ with which he grew up. Prints have been a major preoccupation through most his working life and he has won a number of international graphic prizes. In the 1980s Hockney built up a new reputation for himself in the field of stage design.

Further reading:
David Hockney, David Hockney by David Hockney, Thames & Hudson, London 1976
David Hockney, That’s the way I see it, Thames & Hudson, London 1993

www.hockneypictures.com