How David Hockney Turned Humble L.A. Home Into a Living Work of Art

Revered British artist David Hockney has died at the age of 88, passing away “peacefully” at his longtime London home, where he continued to paint until his death.

Hockney, who was born into what he described as a “radical working-class family” in the Yorkshire town of Bradford, has been hailed as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, having risen to fame in the 1960s with his pop art-style depictions of California living that are said to have helped “define the Los Angeles aesthetic,” according to The Guardian.

But the artist’s connection to the Golden State extended far beyond his works of art.

Hockney, who came out as gay at the age of 23, first traveled to the U.S. the following year, in 1961, when he visited New York City, a trip that would spark his decadeslong love affair with America—a place where he felt his sexuality was far less repressed than in the U.K., where homosexual acts between men remained illegal until 1967.

That trip to New York is said to have been a source of great inspiration for Hockney, who would return to the city multiple times over the following years, before traveling to Los Angeles for the first time in 1963, when he began what was arguably the most iconic era of his storied career.

Hockney quickly fell in love with the California lifestyle—which would define the early years of his rise to fame, when he became best known for his colorful depictions of swimming pools in Los Angeles, a series that identified him “as the quintessential artist of Southern California’s nouveau riche leisure life,” The New York Times notes.

Even as his art evolved and his subjects changed, Hockney remained enamored with Los Angeles, where he spent time teaching at the teaching at UCLA, and later purchased two dwellings—a Malibu beach house on the Pacific Coast Highway and a humble ranch-style home in the Hollywood Hills, which he still owned when he died.

This property, which Hockney purchased for just $181,500 in 1981, would, in many ways, become a living representation of his artistic style as he steadily transformed the humble, brown abode into a vibrant, colorful paradise.

In 1983, he sat down with Architectural Digest at the property, describing it as a place that “everyone likes,” despite acknowledging that his colorful aesthetic went against the neutral trend of the time.

“Everyone who comes here likes it. People don’t dare such colors usually,” he said.

Hockney noted that his transformation of the property was being carried out slowly, “room by room,” as he carefully worked out the best color scheme for each space and “architectural element.”

“What I am doing, slowly, is making my own environment—room by room—as artists do. Of course it’s fun,” he added.