The story of David Hockney is one of passion: passion for seeing, passion for telling, passion for images. But to these should be added passion for life. Hockney’s art is a celebration of what it is to be alive. All his pictures—sometimes tender, as when he draws close friends and family; sometimes playful, as in his paintings of lazy, carefree days at the pool; sometimes awe-inspiring, as with his monumental images of the Grand Canyon—convey what it means to be in the world, to see it, to move in it, to love it.
This constant exploration of how to communicate such feelings through art emerges with particular clarity in this stunning, lively volume, featuring artworks personally selected by Hockney himself. This edition of Hockney’s Pictures also includes a new final chapter that focuses on the artist’s prolific recent iPad paintings, and other work in various media. Charting almost sixty years of extraordinary creativity, the book is arranged thematically to show the evolution and diversity of Hockney’s prolific output across paintings, drawings, watercolors, prints, and photography. It also features quotes from the artist that illuminate the passion and deep thought behind his work.
Hockney’s Pictures celebrates the artist’s lifelong experiments in ways of looking, seeing, and depicting.
Reviews
From between the covers springs all the brightness and energy of the prolific output of this most exuberant and yet sensitive artist.
— The Times
A compelling narrative of the workings of a curious, intelligent, visually inventive mind at work.
— The Art Quarterly
Contributors
David Hockney
Author
David Hockney (1937–2026) was one of the most influential British artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He produced work in almost every medium—painting, drawing, stage design, photography, and printmaking—and stretched the boundaries of all of them. During his lifetime, he published numerous books with Thames & Hudson, including Hockney’s Pictures, The World According to David Hockney, Spring Cannot be Cancelled: David Hockney in Normandy, and David Hockney by David Hockney (first published in 1976 with a 50th anniversary edition forthcoming in 2026). Thames & Hudson also published the catalog for his major retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in 2025.
