David Hockney is everywhere this season. With a thorough retrospective in Paris, staged at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, and more exhibitions around the world, it’s impossible to miss the greatest artist on earth.

To celebrate his incredible life, Prestel publishes a new title called David Hockney: A graphic novel and it is produced by Monica Foggia, Giovanni Gastaldi, and edited by Balthazar Pagani.

This amazing new graphic novel explores the complex and multifaceted career of one of the most influential artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The prologue reads: “The following fictional biography traces the private life and artistic career of David Hockney and honours one of the most representative personalities of the art scene at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. The strong autobiographical reference and the complexity of his work distinguish Hockney from his contemporaries and make him unique.”

Told from the perspective of a contemporary and former art college friend, this graphic biography traces Hockney’s lifelong commitment to artistic innovation and personal authenticity. From his early acclaim as a student to his pivotal years in Los Angeles, where the region’s radiant light and culture inspired his iconic swimming pool paintings and portraits of affluent Californians, Hockney’s journey is rendered with vivid storytelling and expressive visuals.

“The starting point of the narrative is the opening of the retrospective at Tate Britain in 2017. As it has always been the great artist’s aim to make the viewer an active part of his works, with the intention of creating art that involves everyone, we thought it right to have the painter’s story told by a fictional character who embodies, as far as possible, the recipient of David Hockney’s artistic work.”

The narrative delves into his bold experiments with photography and technology, his poignant response to the AIDS crisis, and his enduring obsession with colour. It also captures his later years, marked by groundbreaking explorations in digital art that further cemented his reputation as a forward-thinking creative force.

Bringing to life Hockney’s most celebrated exhibitions, life and oeuvre, this inspiring biography combines firsthand insight with imaginative illustrations to reveal how a singular artist continually reshaped the possibilities of visual expression. The drawings are fantastic and the texts accessible to all.

Special mention to the first inner pages featuring Hockney’s pool motif. David Hockney: A graphic novel is brilliant!

David Hockney: A Graphic Novel | Stockists: Available from good booksellers. For stockists visit prestel.com | Product page.| Samples credit: @prestel_publishing | Other tag: @giftpruk