Early Work and Context
One of David Hockney's early paintings portrays a couple embracing. Created in 1961, this image might appear to depict a conventional romantic scene. However, at that time, it was a groundbreaking work because the couple shown are both men, and homosexuality was still illegal in the United Kingdom.
Hockney, who passed away aged 88, painted We Two Boys Together Clinging as a second-year student at the Royal College of Art. Homosexuality was only partially decriminalised six years later, in 1967, when legislation permitted sexual relations between two men "in private," provided both were over 21 years old.
The 1961 painting, inspired by a Walt Whitman poem of the same name, marked an early declaration by an artist who would become a defining figure in British and LGBT+ culture.
Over the following decade, Hockney continued to challenge social taboos by celebrating same-sex relationships in his art, often focusing on the quiet, everyday moments of gay domestic life.
There is an underground quality to some of Hockney's early works. His paintings resemble graffiti: spiky, expressive, and defiant, rendered with bold lines and block colours.
"He was really pioneering as somebody who was unashamedly proud of his queerness before the legalisation of homosexuality in '67," says Dominic James Bilton, co-leader of the Queer British Art Network.
In these early paintings, Hockney "showed and made work on same-sex relationships and desire and sexuality" at a time when "not a lot of people were doing that".
California Influence and Later Works
Hockney's style shifted dramatically after his first visit to California in 1964, where he painted his renowned swimming pool series.
One notable 1966 painting, Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool, depicts a nude man climbing out of a swimming pool, his back to the viewer, head turned as if speaking to someone just outside the frame.
The 1963 painting Domestic Scene, Los Angeles shows one man showering while another washes his back.
"Those works are so queer, so sensual and sexy and playful and joyous," Bilton remarks, adding they also depict the "domesticity" and "dull aspects of gay relationships".
Hockney was "normalising same-sex relationships... that we take for granted," Bilton suggests, highlighting that the artist portrayed gay people as "just normal people... doing normal stuff, looking at our partners and thinking: 'oh, you're beautiful'".
Hockney Tattoo
Among Hockney's pool paintings, A Bigger Splash is perhaps the most famous, capturing the moment immediately after a diver disappears beneath the surface of a swimming pool.
Joe Thomas, a lifelong admirer, has this painting tattooed on his leg. He told the BBC,
"I can still remember the feeling of awe and deep peace the first time I saw it. It suggests making that leap and going for it; something I try to live by."
Thomas's other favourite is Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool, which he describes as a "snapshot of a peaceful, beautiful and gay paradise in the mid-60s." He adds,
"There's stillness and love."
"So much of Hockney's painting, to me, feels so naturally gay... it's not radically queer or a bombastic explosion of his sexuality, it just so happens to be about being gay and fancying other men. I find a freedom in that."
Legacy and Interpretation
James Marshall, a 26-year-old curator and art commentator, stresses the importance of remembering the history behind Hockney's early work.
"For a lot of people growing up now, especially a lot of the gay youth – including myself – you can look at his paintings and assume they're lovely, pretty pictures.
"But they're also a strong act of protest at a time when showing queer lives as normalised or domesticated was very much avoided," he says.
In the 1960s, portrayals of gay men in popular culture were often limited to "parody," Marshall explains. Media representations frequently isolated queer figures, depicting them as lonely and confined to basic stereotypes.
Hockney's California series, however, "told an alternative story of queerness" in which gay life was "domesticated" and "peaceful."
To fully appreciate the work, Marshall emphasizes, "people need to understand the context of that time."
Writer and critic Michael Valinsky notes the political power of Hockney's paintings is easy to underestimate today.
He tells the BBC it is now difficult to appreciate the effect Hockney's work had on museum-goers in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
"It's hard for me to think about the shock factor at the time," he says.
Valinsky explains that Hockney's paintings offered society new visual ways to engage with ideas about homosexuality, stating,
"That helps the cause, right? Don't name it, just look at it," he said.
Always Radical
Author and art critic Will Gompertz describes David Hockney's work as "always radical," from his earliest paintings to his final pieces.
"Even his later work... it was really joyful at a time when there's so much cynicism, so that just to celebrate life is deemed to be facile.
"Ultimately, he completely challenged that notion, and said: 'No, I want to celebrate what's beautiful, and bring that to people's attention'," Gompertz says.
However, Hockney's joyful art "always comes with a bite," Gompertz adds, whether depicting gay love when homosexuality was illegal or exploring "how we've lost our connection with nature."
In his later work, Hockney examined humanity's relationship with technology and "reinvented the landscape [painting] for the 21st Century."
Gompertz concludes,
"Every iteration of what [Hockney's] done has been equally as bold" as those early works.
"I think the boy you meet at 16 or 17 when he went to art school, to the man who died [on Friday], he doesn't change a lot. He's the same thoughtful, bold, curious, colourful character," Gompertz said.
