David Hockney, painter of California pool scenes, dies at 88

David Hockney died at 88, his publicist said he "passed away peacefully" at his London home on Thursday, about one month before his 89th birthday. Hockney became famous for sun-drenched Los Angeles paintings and pool scenes, notably Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1972) and Large Interior, Los Angeles, which helped define the look of 1960s California. His Portrait of an Artist sold for $90.3 million in 2018, a record for a living artist, and his career also embraced photo collages, iPad drawings, and large Yorkshire panoramas such as Garrowby Hill. Hockney's bold color, technical experimentation, and frank depictions of queer intimacy reshaped late 20th-century painting and left a lasting influence on museums, collectors, and contemporary artists.