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 colour, good humour, great glasses, cigarettes and smoky charm. But for a young gay artist from a northern mill town, nothing about that journey was effortless.
Hockney knew what it was to be judged before he was properly seen. In Britain, class prejudice travels through accent. His Bradford voice carried history, poetry and bite, but at the Royal College of Art in London it was mocked. Looking at the drawings of his fellow students who laughed, he simply outdrew them.
