'Paul Morley is my kind of critic.' - Grace Jones
From the swimming pools of Los Angeles to the hills of Yorkshire, from the bright light of California to the changing skies of Normandy, David Hockney spent a lifetime seeing the world differently. One of the most celebrated and influential artists of our age, Hockney continually reinvented both his art and himself. His paintings are among the most recognisable images in modern culture, yet the story of the places that shaped his imagination has never been told quite like this before.
In David Hockney: An Artist for Life, acclaimed writer Paul Morley takes us on a journey through the landscapes, cities and communities that inspired Hockney's remarkable career. Bradford, London, California, Yorkshire, France: each location reveals a different side of a restless, curious and endlessly innovative artist. More than a biography, this is a vivid exploration of creativity, freedom, identity and belonging. As Morley traces Hockney's rise from working-class Bradford to international fame, he shows how friendship, love, curiosity and place fuelled one of the most extraordinary artistic lives of the modern era.
Insightful, entertaining and rich in cultural history, David Hockney: An Artist for Life offers a fresh and captivating portrait of an artist who has never stopped looking, questioning and creating.
David Hockney: An Artist for Life
By Paul Morley
An exploration of David Hockney's story through a series of locations that transformed the way he saw the world - from the swimming pools of California and the landscapes of Yorkshire to the light of southern France and the changing seasons of Normandy.
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Book Details
Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing | Pub date: September 2025 | Format: 178 x 130mm | Extent: 272 pages | Word Count: 35,000 wordsAbout the Author
Paul Morley has been one of the UK’s finest music journalists and broadcasters since the late 1970s. He wrote for the New Musical Express for almost a decade and has written for the Guardian and Telegraph. His book The Age of Bowie was hugely critically and commercially successful and sold over 16,000 copies in HB. It was also a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller and was selected as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.
