Funeral services were pending Friday for British artist David Hockney, whose vividly bright paintings documented the Southern California lifestyle, with many of his works inspired by or crafted at his distinctive home and studio in the Hollywood Hills.
Hockney died Thursday in London at age 88.
The Getty Museum mourned his death with a Friday morning social media post, saying, “We’re deeply saddened by the passing of artist and friend of Getty, David Hockney. An artist who was unafraid to explore drawing, printmaking, painting and photography, his legacy will inspire generations to come.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom issued a joint statement Friday.
“David was immensely creative, curious, and generous with his art and his joy,” they said. “He was deeply influential in both the 20th and 21st centuries, inspiring artists and viewers alike with vibrant and colorful works that captured the spirit of his subjects and the essence of his landscapes. A British transplant to Los Angeles, he soaked up the California sunshine and gave that warmth back to the world tenfold. He will be deeply missed.”
Born in England in 1937, Hockney attended the Bradford School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London, and he helped establish the British pop art movement in the early 1960s. He moved to the United States and spent time as a teacher, including a stint at UCLA and at UC Berkeley.
When he came to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s, he fell in love with the lifestyle — the palm trees, the ocean, the swimming pools — all of it reflected in his colorful works. His portraits of pools and poolside figures became signatures of his work.
In 1972 he painted “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures),” which sold at auction in 2018 for a then-record $90 million.
He bounced between the United States, London and France for a decade, and in the late 1970s, he rented and later purchased a home in the Hollywood Hills, which became his Southern California base of operations. He also had a home in Malibu and a studio in West Hollywood. He later became a co-founder of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.
Hockney had come out as gay while still at the Royal College of Art in London, at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in England. He made no secret of his sexuality, which he reflected in some of his works, including “We Two Boys Together Clinging” and “Domestic Scene, Los Angeles.”
In addition to his paintings, Hockney also engaged in printmaking, photography and video. He even did costume and set-design work for the Los Angeles Opera, the San Francisco Opera and other companies.
His work has been displayed in hundreds of exhibitions around the globe, including at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Hockney continued working until late in life, telling CNN in 2017, “I’m perfectly happy doing this. I feel 30 when I’m in the studio, so I come in every day and work, because then I feel 30.”