Biography

Appointed a Companion of Honour in the 1997 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

He allegedly declined British knighthood in 1990 for his services to the Arts but he accepted the Companion of Honour in 1997.

Awarded an honorary DLitt by Oxford University in 1995.

Survived by his long-time partner and companion Jean-Pierre Goncalves de Lima, his great-nephew Richard - his studio assistant in his last years - his brothers Philip and John, plus his nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.

When the BBC News channel first announced the death of David Hockney on their 1 PM news programme on 12 June 2026, they were also reporting on the resignation of a government minister and initially they confused the two stories and ran a caption "David Hockney resigns".

My father thought of Russia as a land of cornfields and happy laughter, and he used to drop copies of The Daily Worker around casually for people to read. Mother was always hissing at him and telling him to pick them up.

If we are to change our world view, images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He's not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people, he's really needed.

What I always longed to do was to be able to paint like I can draw, most artists would tell you that, they would all like to paint like they can draw.

Television is becoming a collage — there are so many channels that you move through them making a collage yourself. In that sense, everyone sees something a bit different. (1988)

The purists think you're going backwards, but I know you'd go forward.