David Hockney, Celia in a black dress with red stockings, 1973, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, gift of Orde Poynton Esq CMG 1998. © Estate of David Hockney Photo: NGA.
The ranking of artists is not the prerogative of contemporaries – it is the role of posterity. David Hockney died on 11 June 2026 and we are scrambling to ascertain and comprehend his legacy.
He was unbelievably prolific and impossible to pin down. He was a key contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s with paintings, prints and collages.
Hockney was an outstanding stage set designer, employing his neurological condition of synaesthesia, through which his associations of sound, colour and shape led to the most unusual, visually vibrant opera stage sets.
He was also an obsessive photographer and contributor to the various digital arts, especially in depicting people and landscapes.
Hockney was an incredibly curious artist, endlessly fascinated by how we see things and how that can be manipulated in art. However, more than anything, he was preoccupied with the human figure, portraiture and commentary on the human condition.
Much of Hockney’s art was autobiographical and, as a gay man, he fled the restrictions of his native Britain to the relative freedom of Los Angeles and in his art celebrated those whom he loved, frequently depicted with homoerotic detail.
Hockney could draw like an angel with a line that not only articulated form but introduced a touch of sensuousness.
David Hockney (artist), Tyler Graphics (printer and publisher), Red Celia, 1984, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1986. © Estate of David Hockney/Tyler Graphics Ltd Photo: NGA.
The National Gallery of Australia holds more than 1000 works by Hockney, with over 60 on display in this exhibition.
The earliest pieces date from 1961 and the most recent from 2012 – it is a spectacular half century of Hockney treasures.
There are drawings, etchings, lithographs, paper pulp prints, photographs, fax art, photocopy art and a few animated iPad pieces on loan from the David Hockney Studio.
A number of the pieces could be described as iconic Hockney works that have featured in many Hockney retrospective exhibitions; others are rare or unique and stem from the Ken Tyler archive or judicious purchases.
The crayon drawing, Celia in a black dress with red stockings, 1973, is a miracle of drawing, once you get to know it.
Celia Birtwell was a British textile and fashion designer and one of Hockney’s closest friends whom he drew constantly over several decades.
This drawing looks casual and yet conveys a remarkable amount of information. More than a decade later, Hockney’s Red Celia, 1984, lithograph reinterprets her features to create this icon in British art.
David Hockney (artist), Atelier Crommelynck (printer), Propyläen Verlag (publisher), The student: homage to Picasso, 1973, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1980. © Estate of David Hockney Photo: NGA.
Another iconic image is Hockney’s etching The student: homage to Picasso, 1973, where he presents himself in a Panama hat and wearing his signature round glasses as he approaches a bust of the young Picasso on the plinth – a work made in the year of Picasso’s death.
Hockney’s printer, Aldo Crommelynck, was also Picasso’s master printer and in a way Hockney is hinting at a homage to the master while following in his footsteps.
David Hockney, Gregory in the pool, paper pool 4, 1978, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1979. © Estate of David Hockney Photo: NGA.
The exhibition includes numerous images of Hockney’s lovers, including the image of Gregory in the pool, 1978, printed by his friend and long-term collaborator, Ken Tyler, using his unique coloured paper pulp technique.
Gregory Evans reappears six years later in Tyler’s collaged colour lithograph, An image of Gregory, 1984-85, from the artist’s Moving focus series.
David Hockney (artist), Tyler Graphics (printer and publisher), An image of Gregory, 1984-85, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, gift of Kenneth Tyler 2002. © Estate of David Hockney/Tyler Graphics Ltd Photo: NGA.
The earliest pieces in the exhibition are etchings from Hockney’s A rake’s progress series from 1961 to 1963, with the unforgettable image of the artist dyeing his hair blonde on his first journey to New York and creating his trademark appearance, the latest are the iPad pieces from 2012.
Throughout, Hockney interrogates the human face with amazing skill, wit and introspection.
Hockney once said: “The eye is always moving; if it isn’t moving you are dead.”
What particularly struck me about this superb exhibition, beautifully curated by Magda Keaney, is the artist’s lively intellect, exceptional skill level and his ability to make the human form, especially the face, into something that is in constant motion, telling us a fascinating story with passion and infectious enthusiasm.
David Hockney: Portraits in Print, is at the National Gallery of Australia, gallery 13, from 5 September to 9 May 2027, free entry.