BBC - iWonder - From Bradford to Beverly Hills: A David Hockney timeline
From Bradford to Beverly Hills: A David Hockney timeline
Late landscapes
Britain's greatest living artist?
David Hockney is famed for capturing the allure of California with his 1960s paintings of swimming pools and people basking under bright blue skies. But he is equally adept with urban and rural English landscapes, photography and portraiture.
It is his ability to challenge himself, painting in a variety of styles as well as experimenting with new technology, that has made him such a successful artist. What are the key moments from a creative life that is constantly evolving?
Mastering the basics
Getty / Hulton Archive
David Hockney said that he was raised in both Bradford and Hollywood, due to the influence of the cinema.
David Hockney was born and raised in Bradford, leaving school at 16 to study at Bradford College of Art for four years.
Hockney had always possessed a natural ability and was a diligent student. The training he received in life drawing and portraiture gave him essential skills for the future. In 1957 he exhibited and sold Portrait of my Father at the Yorkshire Artists Exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery. In the same year he graduated with honours from the college and was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Art.  The groundwork for his career progression from student to professional artist had been laid.
London calling
David Hockney in 1963. Tony Evans/Timelapse Library Ltd.
Hockney moved to London in 1959 to study at the Royal College of Art. He recalled his northern accent being mocked by some of his fellow students.
He initially assumed the other students would be superior artists. The confidence he had developed while studying in Bradford allowed him to quickly overcome this and his paintings began to sell before he graduated from college. Hockney found the Bohemian atmosphere allowed him to be open about his homosexuality, despite it not being decriminalised in the UK until 1967. He even tackled the subject in his work, such as the painting We Two Boys Together Clinging.
Double portraits
Getty
David Hockney painted a double portrait of the designers Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell, and their cat Percy, in 1970 and 71.
One medium that Hockney has been drawn to throughout his career is portraiture, capturing likenesses of friends and family.
In the late 1960s and early 70s Hockney made a number of double portraits of friends, such as the writer Christopher Isherwood and his partner Don Bachardy and fashion designers Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell. In these Hockney explored the relationship between those pictured. It has been noted that the distance between Clark and Birtwell is prophetic as their marriage ended in divorce four years after Hockney completed the portrait.
Photographs in art
The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso. The Art Institute of Chicago / Bridgeman Images.
Hockney originally used photos to help him compose portraits. But in the 1970s he began to experiment with constructing art from photographs.
He made a series of photocollages and composite polaroids and applied these techniques to a variety of subjects. These range from portraits and landscapes, such as The Grand Canyon, 1982, to still life compositions, such as Still Life Blue Guitar. This was inspired by Wallace Stevens’ poem The Man with the Blue Guitar, which was in turn inspired by Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist. In 1984 Hockney's book Cameraworks won the Kodak Photography Book Award.
New technology
David Hockney continues to work with new technology, such as iPads.
From painting and printmaking to stage design and photography, Hockney’s appetite for experimentation has been fuelled by technological developments.
In 1985, he took part in the series Painting With Light, being filmed as he created a new work using an early computer graphics system, Quantel Paintbox. In 1990 he made use of a digital camera for the first time.  He has used fax machines to send drawings around the world and photocopiers to make art.  Hockney has continued to experiment with new technology, using apps on iPhones and iPads to create works like the landscape painting Yosemite I, October 16th 2011.