Sunday 14th June 2026
My brother has just posted his tribute to David Hockney on his blog and I have replied as below.
David H was also a contemporary of mine at Badford Grammar School albeit he was a year ahead of me, and like you I don't think I ever spoke to him and I have little memory of him at that time, except for admiring some of his artwork displayed in the art master's room. I have much more distinct memory of him in my post school days, often seeing him pushing his pram full of easels and art paraphernalia around Bradford city centre.
Whilst ticking off the English Marilyns there was a lonely one in a field just off the A166 in the middle of nowhere. I later found that it was just beyond Garrowby Hill, now the subject of one of David H's more well known paintings. I now have a small print in my living room.
There will be many anecdotes I suppose but it was rumoured that when presented with his O Level Maths exam paper David wrote across it "I can't do maths but I can draw" and proceeded to do just that.
Especially with my somewhat tenuous connection I feel as though some vital ingredient has gone from our lives, BUT WHAT A LEGACY!
Go and see the Hockney collection at Salt's Mill in Saltaire at the heart of David's West Riding beginings; certainly for me always a significant experience from several visits during my eighty odd years.
