David Hockney, the artist who forced Britain to make room for color, joy and queerness

By Simon Mckeown. Professor of Art, School of Arts & Creative Industries, Teesside University, Teesside University Born in Bradford and shaped by northern art-school discipline, David Hockney brought a working-class, almost punk refusal to British art: do the work, trust the eye, do not ask for approval. Hockney made success look effortless: all color, good humor, great glasses, cigarettes and smoky charm. But for a young gay artist from a northern mill town, nothing about that journey was effortless.