British artist David Hockney died at 88, his publicist said Friday, saying he passed away peacefully at home in London on Thursday.
Erica Bolton said in an emailed statement that he was "one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries" and "one of the most influential and defining figures in contemporary art."
Hockney was born in Bradford in 1937 and trained at the Bradford School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London.
He began his career in abstract expressionism, moved to California in 1964 and adopted a more figurative style that produced images of modernist architecture and swimming pools, including the 1972 "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)."
That 1972 painting sold for $90.3 million at auction in New York in 2018.
Britain awarded him the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1997, and in 2026 he was made an Officier in France's Legion d'Honneur.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan called Hockney a "true icon and revolutionary of British art who never stopped reinventing his work," saying the artist had "inspired millions" and "helped me see the beauty and fragility of our natural world — and why it must be protected." The art historian Richard Morris wrote on X that Hockney's "huge achievement was to make serious painting look effortless" and that "British art has lost a giant."
The Bolton & Quinn public relations firm said Hockney is survived by his long-time partner and companion Jean-Pierre Goncalves de Lima, two brothers and "numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews."
London's Serpentine Gallery is currently holding his first exhibition there, conceived in close collaboration with the artist and showcasing new paintings, and future exhibitions at Tate, London, and the Munch Museum in Oslo were in development. The publicist's statement said he "kept painting, experimenting and exhibiting his acclaimed work right up until his death" and that "He smoked up to the end."