The first authorized biography of one of the past century's greatest and most influential artists. Born in 1937, David Hockney grew up in a northern English town during the days of postwar austerity. Despite universally hard times, the seed of Hockney's imagination found fertile ground, at first being drawn to his father wielding a paintbrush while refurbishing bicycles and prams and then further spurred by outings to the theater and the movies. While good at most subjects in school, Hockney quickly gravitated to art as the only topic he really cared for and soon enrolled in a local art college before moving on to the Royal College of Art. Bursting onto the scene at the Young Contemporaries exhibition, Hockney was quickly heralded as the golden boy of postwar British art and a leading proponent of Pop art. From that point there was no turning back. The sixties proved an incredibly productive decade for Hockney as he traveled from London to New York to Los Angeles, where he painted his iconic series of swimming pools. In the seventies he expanded his range of projects, including set and costume design for operas and experiments with photography, lithography, and even photocopying. Woven throughout is the story of Hockney's relationship with Peter Schlesinger and the turbulent emergence of gay rights. Christopher Simon Sykes has unprecedented access to Hockney, who has given his full consent to the book and sat for many interviews with the author. This will be the first of a two-volume work, the second volume of which will cover Hockney's life following his father's death in February of 1978 through today.

CHRISTOPHER SIMON SYKES is a photographer and writer. He specializes in architectural and garden photography and writes on architecture and social history. Sykes worked with Eric Clapton on his autobiography, Clapton, and his work has appeared in publications such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Town & Country, and Architectural Digest. He lives with his wife and daughter in North London.