IN MEMORIAM | DAVID HOCKNEY 1937–2026

I am enormously saddened to mark the passing of David Hockney.

I started my life in art selling his posters. What began there became something much bigger. Hockney has been at the centre of almost everything I have done in art ever since. I have spent years looking at his work, handling it, talking about it, learning from it and sharing it with collectors. In many ways, he has been my life in art. His work gave me a career, a direction, and a great deal of joy.

In 2018, I had the extraordinary experience of meeting him. When he welcomed me into his home. He served me  champagne and talked for hours. It was one of those moments I will never forget, generous, warm, unexpected and completely human.

That is how I will remember him: not only as one of the greatest artists of our time, but as someone alive with curiosity, wit, warmth and an endless appetite for looking at the world. His work taught so many of us to look harder, to notice more, and to find joy in colour, light, people, places, gardens, rooms, roads, trees, dogs, flowers, trees, pools and the simple act of seeing.

I feel immensely grateful for what his work has given me personally, and for what it has given to so many others. I remember him with deep admiration, affection and gratitude.

Roland Clark
Pentimento London