The world of art and design recently lost one of its most vivid luminaries. With the passing of David Hockney in June 2026 at the age of 88, we say goodbye to a giant of British painting - a creative force who spent seven decades fundamentally changing how we see the world around us.
At The Luxury Bath Company, our appreciation for design is deeply rooted in the interplay of water, form, and light. It is impossible to reflect on these elements without honouring Hockney, an artist who elevated the simple act of looking at water into some of the most celebrated masterpieces of the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Boy from Bradford

Born in Yorkshire in 1937, Hockney’s artistic brilliance was evident early on. He sketched constantly, using whatever surface was available - from bus tickets to the linoleum floor of his family kitchen. After attending the Bradford School of Art, he moved to the Royal College of Art in London, where his prodigious talent earned him a Gold Medal.
Though he was quickly swept up in the British Pop Art movement of the 1960s - a label he famously resisted - Hockney was always on his own distinct path. He was fiercely independent, fascinated by art history, and driven by an intense desire to explore how human beings actually perceive space and time.

Capturing the Californian Sun

In 1964, Hockney relocated to Los Angeles, a move that would define his most iconic era. Leaving behind the grey skies of London, he was captivated by the seductive, sun-drenched lifestyle of Southern California.
It was here he painted his celebrated swimming pool series. Works like A Bigger Splash (1967) and Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1972) are triumphs of observation. Hockney became obsessed with the challenge of painting water - a substance that is transparent, constantly moving, and entirely dependent on the light reflecting off it. Through meticulous linear mark-making and flat, bold acrylics, he froze the chaotic beauty of splashing water against the rigid geometry of modernist architecture.
For those of us who appreciate the serenity of a beautifully designed bathing space, Hockney's pools are deeply resonant. He didn't just paint water; he painted the feeling of a cloudless day and the irresistible urge to dive in.

A Lifetime of Reinvention

Hockney’s genius lay in his refusal to stand still. He was a master draughtsman, but he was also an eager early adopter of technology. When the medium didn't suit his vision, he changed the medium.
In the 1980s, frustrated by the fixed-point perspective of traditional photography, he created "joiners" - complex photo collages made from dozens of Polaroids that captured a subject from multiple angles, mimicking the way the human eye actually darts around a room.
He was an accomplished set designer, creating definitive visual interpretations for operas in London, Chicago, and New York. Later in life, he traded his paintbrushes for fax machines, colour photocopiers, and eventually, the Apple iPad. His magnificent 2011 series, The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, and his recent 90-metre-long iPad frieze, A Year in Normandie, proved that technology in the hands of a master is just another brush.

"Love Life"

Hockney was awarded the Companion of Honour in 1997 and joined the Order of Merit in 2012, cementing his status as a British cultural icon. His exhibitions broke attendance records from the Tate in London to the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.
Yet, despite his immense fame, his work remained accessible, intimate, and inherently joyful. He often signed his correspondence with the phrase, "Love Life." David Hockney taught us that if you take the time to really look - whether at a Yorkshire forest turning green in the spring, or the sunlight dancing across the surface of a pool - the world is thrilling, beautiful, and endlessly mysterious.
His irrepressible charm and dazzling creativity will be deeply missed, but his vision remains exactly where he left it: brightly coloured, perfectly framed, and inviting us all to look a little closer.

Image: Connaissance des Arts, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0