“Art has to move you and design does not, unless it’s a good design for a bus.”

• David Hockney

David Hockney is one of the most successful and recognizable artists of our time. Droll and dazzling, he was a significant artist in the pop art movement of the 1960’s and pushed the envelope on expressing the experience that came with his sexual identity in a time when it wasn’t considered appropriate. In queer oppression, he found an opportunity to shake up heteronormative structures. His best-known works are his photo collages and paintings of Los Angeles swimming pools. Hockney’s pieces deliberately deconstruct proportion, linear perspective, and color theory to demonstrate that opposites can peacefully coexist; conventions can be broken down, revealing a message of tolerance in the world of art, politically, and socially.
Hockney was born in Bradford, England in 1937. As a child, he relished books and took an interest in art, especially admiring Picasso and Matisse. His parents encouraged their son to explore his artistic abilities. As a young adult, he attended the Bradford College of Art between 1953 and 1957. After a couple years serving in hospitals to fulfill his national service requirement, he pursued graduate school at the Royal College of Art in London. Here he became acquainted with other young artists Peter Blake and Allen Jones. Hockney was a successful student whose paintings won prizes and sold well.
His style was unlike most pop artists; he incorporated his fascination for Cubism into his works, combining multiple scenes in one piece. In 1963, Hockney visited California, quickly fell in love with the heat and light it offered him, and moved there officially in 1966. It was in California where he received the inspiration for and completed A Bigger Splash, one of his most famous pieces. By the 1970s, his style had evolved from expressionist to realist. It was also during this time that he temporarily relinquished painting for photography and theatre costume design.
Later in the 80s, he returned to painting seascapes, flowers, and loved ones. Technological advances began to rise and Hockney played with them to form new types of art media. He used a photocopier in 1986 to create his first homemade prints, and later used fax machines and laser printers in 1990. In 2009, he took advantage of painting apps, such as Brushes on iPhone and iPad. These paintings were later exhibited at the Royal Museum of Ontario.