‘I think about him every time I go swimming’: artists remember David Hockney

Rachel Whiteread recalled seeing a TV programme about David Hockney as a child and how he 'made being an artist look fun.' She said, 'I think about him every time I go swimming,' admiring how 'he painted water, and figures within water' and adding that 'it was like he was breathing art.' Jeremy Deller called him 'a great role model – always up to something and enjoying it.' He remembered Hockney designing a banner titled The Unrepentant Smokers for a Manchester procession, which made an anti-smoking councillor 'hit the roof,' a reaction Hockney found funny.

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