Hockney’s first works were influenced by American Abstract Expressionism, and painters such as Jackson Pollock. In 1960, Hockney began to make his Love paintings, exhibiting them for two years in a row at the Young Contemporaries exhibition at London’s RBA Galleries.

The painting We Two Boys Together Clinging, which takes its inspiration from the American writer Walt Whitman’s poem of the same name, is perhaps the most famous of these works. A gestural, expressionistic depiction of two figures in an embrace, its use of graffiti-like script made coded references to Hockney’s sexuality at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain.  These paintings birthed a style of their own and became emblematic of a British Pop Art scene and of the ‘swinging’, bohemian London of the ‘60s.

David Hockney was born and raised in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire in the North of England. From a very young age, he showed an aptitude and passion for art; with his father, Kenneth Hockney, a conscientious objector, he likely had a liberal upbringing, encouraging his self-expression and interest in political causes. When he was just sixteen, he enrolled at the Bradford School of Art. The school has a rich artistic history, on which Hockney has evidently left his mark: in 2015, Bradford School of Art opened their new 'David Hockney Building' on campus.

Hockney was to return to the Yorkshire landscape throughout his artistic career, finding endless inspiration and a source of constant renewal in its green ruralism, as we shall see. The 1853 Gallery at Salts Mill in Saltaire, located near Hockney's hometown Bradford, still houses numerous pieces from his vast and varied collection.

Swimming pools are a focal point of Hockney’s artistic oeuvre. Hockney’s series of paintings known as The Splash and A Bigger Splash were executed in 1966 and 1967 have proven to be iconic artworks in British Pop Art. These works perfectly capture and immortalise the ‘splash’ of an unseen swimmer entering a Californian swimming pool on a sunny day and mimic a snapshot from a camera.

Hockney continues with his lifelong muse, the swimming pool, in his celebrated 1972 Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), where the prospect of illustrating two figures in varying motions excited him. The painting portrays Hockney’s former lover, Peter Schlesinger, standing over a figure swimming towards him in the pool. The painting is now Hockney’s most expensive work ever sold, selling for US$90.3 million at Christie’s, New York.

The highest price ever paid for a David Hockney painting was achieved in November 2018, when Portrait Of An Artist (Pool With Two Figures) (1972) sold for a staggering £70.7M for at Christie's in New York . With artworks regularly going under the hammer, David Hockney remains one of England's most prolific artists.

Hockney's current partner is longtime companion Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima. Also known as JP, he also works with Hockney in his studio as his chief assistant.

Painted in 1967, A Bigger Splash is perhaps David Hockney's best-known artwork. What is it that makes this painting so iconic and seductive – and still very modern-looking fifty years after it was made?

The painting depicts a sun-drenched swimming pool in Los Angeles. Behind the pool is a pink modernist building and an empty chair. The silhouettes of neighbouring buildings are reflected in the building’s large window. Two spindly palm trees and a neat border of grass suggest carefully manicured gardens. Unusually for Hockney's paintings from this time, there is no-one in sight and the scene is almost entirely still … apart from the splash.

We are left wondering who dived in. The fact that the diver is not shown, adds to the sense that it could be anyone – even us sitting in that empty chair by the pool and jumping into to the cool still water!

What do you think of when you look at A Bigger Splash? Is there a word that sums up how the painting makes you feel? It's OK if that word is 'jealous' as A Bigger Splash is an immediately seductive image. It makes us think of holidays and escapism – or perhaps the sort of life most of us can only dream about.

Throughout his life, Hockney has drawn from the works of canonical artists, such as High Renaissance painter Michelangelo, as well as from the work of more contemporary figures like Balthus or Giorgio Morandi.

As the Influences series shows, in the early portion of his career, Hockney was chiefly inspired by literature. Walt Whitman, for example, is a recurring point of reference in the artist’s early works, particularly the stand-out piece Myself And My Heroes (1961). Other names from the literary world, such as Anglo-American poet W.H. Auden, also informed Hockney’s early output during the ‘60s and ‘70s, as shown by the 1970 etching Auden.

No one has had a greater impact on Hockney’s œuvre, however, more than the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. Hockney once crafted two prints as tribute to his indebtedness to Picasso: The Student (1973) and Artist And Model (1973).