British artist David Hockney, considered one of the most influential and defining figures in contemporary art, whose paintings captured the world in brilliant colour, has died aged 88, his publicist announced on Friday.

Describing Hockney as "one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries", Erica Bolton said that he had "passed away peacefully at home" in London on Thursday, a month before his 89th birthday.

"His seven-decade career and prolific oeuvre was characterised by his multimedia approach in image making, an intellectual inquiry into the nature of depiction and perspective, and a sustained commitment to celebrating and portraying the world around him," the agent's statement added.

It noted he is survived by his long-time partner and companion Jean-Pierre Goncalves de Lima, two brothers and "numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews".

One of the leading artists involved in the Pop art movement in the 1960s, Hockney was globally renowned as a painter and master draughtsman and kept painting, experimenting and exhibiting his acclaimed work right up until his death.

London's Serpentine Gallery is currently holding his first exhibition there, which was conceived in close collaboration with the artist and showcases new paintings by him.

Future exhibitions at Tate, London and the Munch Museum in Oslo were in development.

He was lauded globally, with Britain bestowing the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1997, while this year, Hockney became one of the few non-French citizens to be awarded the rank of Officier in France's prestigious Legion d'Honneur.

Born in 1937 in West Yorkshire, northern England, Hockney trained at the Bradford School of Art in the region and then at London's Royal College, from which he graduated with a Gold Medal distinction.

He would soon emerge as one of the seminal talents in the new generation of British artists, capturing everything from carefree 1960s California – where he moved in 1964 – to the bucolic landscapes of his native Yorkshire.

In 2018, his iconic swimming pool picture, "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" sold for US$90.3 million in New York, setting a new auction record for a living artist. He was unseated by Jeff Koons' "Rabbit" a year later. (AFP)


Edited by Aaron Tam