Explore the Era

Delve into the postwar Los Angeles art world in this online archive, which provides additional material related to the exhibitions on view at the Getty Center. Learn about hipsters and happenings, and the venues across the city where all the action took place through images from the archives and first-hand accounts with the artists.

David Hockney
Artist

David Hockney

David Hockney, ca. 1974

David Hockney was born in 1937 in Bradford, England, and trained at the Royal College of Art in London. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s. Inspired by the sun, backyard pools, and the California living that he learned about through magazines, Hockney created his own form of Pop Art that reveled in lush surfaces, beautiful bodies, and carefully designed modernist homes. While working in Los Angeles, Hockney began using Liquitex, a new acrylic paint that created an opaque, matte surface and contributed to the iconic quality of his works. In addition to painting, Hockney’s vast body of work includes photographs, photo-collage, and prints.

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Exhibition audio: David Hockney’s fascination with an imaginary Los Angeles

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