David Hockney funeral held with just two mourners
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- David Hockney's funeral was held privately with only his partner Jean-Pierre Goncalves de Lima and great-nephew Richard Hockney in attendance, in accordance with the artist's wishes, publicist Erica Bolton said.
- Hockney, 88, died at his London home earlier this month, drawing tributes from King Charles, who called him "a giant of the world of art and painting," PM Sir Keir Starmer, and artist Dame Tracey Emin.
- Memorial services are planned for next year starting in London in spring, followed by further memorials in Los Angeles, Paris, and Yorkshire — cities Hockney called home at different points in his life.
- Most of Hockney's works will be donated to foundations and public institutions worldwide to preserve his legacy, Bolton confirmed.
- A 2018 auction of one of Hockney's swimming pool paintings sold for nearly £70m, a record for a living artist at the time.
- Tate Modern and Tate Britain will stage exhibitions next year marking what would have been Hockney's 90th birthday — a multimedia installation and a career-spanning retrospective, respectively — alongside a current show running until August at Serpentine Galleries.
Why it matters: With most of Hockney's works heading to public institutions and foundations worldwide, access to one of Britain's most commercially successful artists — whose pieces once fetched nearly £70m at auction — is poised to shift from private collections to public view. The two-person private funeral stands in stark contrast to the four-city international memorial circuit now being arranged across London, Los Angeles, Paris, and Yorkshire.
