1937
David Hockney is born in Bradford, Yorkshire, on 9 July, the son of Kenneth and Laura Hockney and
the fourth of five children (Paul, Philip, Margaret, David and John).
Portrait of my Father, 1955
1953–57
Studies at Bradford School of Art, where his fellow students include
Norman Stevens, David Oxtoby and John Loker. He receives a traditional
training based on drawing from life and produces figure studies,
portraits and cityscapes. Exhibits and sells Portrait of my Father at
the 1957 Yorkshire Artists Exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery.
Self-portrait, 1955 |
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1957–59
As a conscientious objector, for his National Service he works as a hospital orderly.
1959
Begins his studies at the Royal College of Art, London, where he meets
R.B. Kitaj, Derek Boshier, Allen Jones, Peter Phillips and Patrick
Caulfield. His tutors include Roger de Grey, Ceri Richards, Ruskin
Spear and Carel Weight. Among the visiting artists are Francis Bacon,
Richard Hamilton, Joe Tilson, Peter Blake and
Richard Smith.
Doll Boy, 1960–61  Peter C, 1961
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1960–61
Sees major Picasso exhibition at Tate Gallery, London. Takes part in
the Young Contemporaries exhibition at the RBA Galleries and wins
Junior Section Prize in the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 1961,
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Meets the art dealer John Kasmin and Mo
McDermott, who becomes his model. Reads Walt Whitman and paints Doll
Boy, Adhesiveness, and other love paintings. On his first trip to New
York in 1961, he meets William S. Lieberman, then Curator of Prints at
the Museum of Modern Art, who buys two Hockney prints. Begins sixteen
etchings for A Rake’s Progress.
David Hockney and Derek Boshier in the Royal College of Art Painting School, 1961
Myself and My Heroes, 1961 |
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1962
Exhibits four Demonstrations of Versatility at the Young
Contemporaries. Becomes friends with designer Ossie Clark. Visits
Florence, Rome and Berlin with Jeff Goodman. Graduates from the Royal
College of Art with a gold medal. Moves into Powis Terrace in the
Notting Hill district of London. Paints The First Marriage.
Life Painting for Myself, 1962.
Domestic Scene, Notting Hill, 1963
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1963
Paints The Second Marriage and Play within a Play. Begins a series of
double-figure domestic scene paintings and shower paintings. His first
solo exhibition, David Hockney: Pictures with People In takes place at
John Kasmin’s gallery and is a sell out. Hockney begins to lead a very
social and public life. His name is often mentioned in the press.
Commissioned by the Sunday Times to make some drawings of Egypt, he
travels there in October and produces forty coloured crayon drawings.
Wins the graphic prize at the 3rd Paris Biennale. In December he goes
to New York and meets Andy Warhol, Dennis Hopper and Henry Geldzahler,
Curator of Twentieth-Century Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Shell Garage, Luxor, 1963
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