Tributes Flow for David Hockney, 88, Who Redefined British Art

—David Hockney, one of the most celebrated British artists of the 20th century, died at 88, prompting global tributes to a figure who redefined contemporary painting with his vivid, sun-drenched California canvases and later pioneering digital works. Hockney's swimming pool paintings — especially A Bigger Splash — became cultural icons of postwar Western leisure and optimism. He was a central figure in the Pop Art movement of the 1960s before evolving a deeply personal style rooted in observation and color. A lifelong smoker who once said cigarettes helped him paint, he survived to see his work achieve record auction prices. The coincidence of his death with Marilyn Monroe's centennial made for reflective coverage of a lost American cultural golden age.