STYLE EVOLUTION

David Hockney, Who’s Now 80, Has Always Been a Style Icon


David Hockney
David Montgomery/Getty Images

In celebration of his 80th birthday today, the British painter David Hockney‘s hometown of Bradford, England, is honoring him with his very own permanent gallery filled with the artist’s early sketchbooks, family photo albums, and plenty of work from his art school days. At the opening this week, inflatable versions of Hockney’s loyal dachshunds buoyed the space, but the artist was nowhere to be found. Instead, he was across the pond at his other home, in Los Angeles—probably painting on his iPad—which isn’t too much of a surprise given the international recognition Hockney has already won this year, namely opening a massive retrospective at the Tate Britain that ended up being the most popular solo exhibition across all of the Tate museums to date. The blockbuster show, which is now open in Paris at the Centre Pompidou, will also travel to the Met in New York this fall. Since his steamy shower scenes of the early ’60s and his early self-portraits, it feels like none of his work has aged a bit. And neither, it seems, has the painter’s distinctive sense of style, which has stayed true over the decades to a few signatures: goggle-like glasses; broad, goofy ties; button-ups under wooly cardigans and lived-in sweaters; a perfectly disheveled mop of bleach blonde hair; and one of his beloved dachshunds in tow. Take a look back at Hockney’s style from his beginnings in the ’60s and ’70s to his octogenarian present, here.

1
1966

David Hockney on the set of Ubu Roi‘ at the Royal Court Theatre, London, 1966.

2
1967

David Hockney in a studio with his work, ca. 1967.

3

David Hockney with one of his beloved dachshunds, date unknown.

4
1969

David Hockney, 1969.

5

David Hockney, date unknown.

6
1972

David Hockney, 1972.

7
1975

David Hockney in the set of The Rake’s Progress, which he designed for the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, 1975.

8
1980

David Hockney in front of one of his paintings in his studio, 1980.

9
1980

David Hockney in an oversized flower planter, 1980.

10
1980s

David Hockney in Los Angeles, 1980s.

11
1985

David Hockney painting, 1985.

12
1986

David Hockney at his exhibition preview at Emmerich Gallery in New York, ca. 1986.

13
1987

David Hockney in Los Angeles, 1987.

14
1988

David Hockney with one of his beloved dachschunds in Los Angeles, 1988.

15
1989

David Hockney at a Christie’s reception for Billy Wilder’s art collection in the Beverly Hills Hotel, 1989.

16
1991

David Hockney with his dogs on the terrace of his beach house in Malibu, 1991.

17
1997

David Hockney at the exhibition “Flowers and Faces” in London, 1997.

18
2016

David Hockney in front of a giant poster at the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, 2016.

19
2017

David Hockney at a private viewing of his retrospective at the Tate Britain in London, February 2017.