Lovers, housewives, deserts and dogs: David Hockney’s greatest works

David Hockney’s work ranges from taut, sun‑kissed portraits of Los Angeles to vast, psychedelic Yorkshire landscapes and a 70m iPad epic made in Normandy. This selection highlights his experiments with colour, perspective and technology, and the recurring subjects that fascinated him over decades.

His 1960s paintings mix intimacy and stagecraft: the homoerotic We Two Boys Together Clinging, the Polaroid‑based Peter Getting Out of Nick’s Pool and the flattened Californian light of Beverly Hills Housewife. A Bigger Splash explores the challenge of depicting moving water, while Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy marked a landmark moment in queer portraiture.

Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy play with wedding‑portrait conventions and theatrical detail. Hockney also pushed the rules of picture‑making. Kerby (After Hogarth) toys with reverse perspective, Mulholland Drive captures a more than 6m wide Californian commute, and Pearblossom Hwy assembles hundreds of photos into a road trip collage.

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