Walk through the aisles of Art Basel this week, and you will see a unified, vivid tribute playing out across the world's most prestigious gallery stands. Following the passing of David Hockney, the art world has been mounting a massive celebration of the British artist who taught Los Angeles how to see itself. Multiple galleries at Art Basel have brought works honoring his legacy, including his long-time representatives Annely Juda Fine Art, as well as Offer Waterman and Richard Gray Gallery. From early sketches of his studio to his monumental double portraits, his presence at the fair is everywhere.
But while critics and historians assess his booming market and museum legacy, there is a much simpler, more immediate reason his work remains so enduringly popular: Hockney's bright, flat, sun-drenched palette is some of the most purely decorative, optimistic art of the last century. If you want to warm up a space, here is why a piece with that distinct California energy is the ultimate interior tool.
The Flat Power of Pool Blue
Hockney's most famous works (the Los Angeles swimming pool paintings) are masterclasses in using flat planes of color to create mood rather than deep perspective. When he looked at California, he saw uninterrupted expanses of brilliant pool blue and hard, geometric shadows.
On a wall, this extreme flatness acts almost like a window. Because the colors are so highly saturated and the compositions so uncluttered, a print with this aesthetic immediately brightens a room. It doesn't ask the viewer to decode complex symbolism; it simply offers the pure, relaxing visual sensation of a sunlit afternoon. To get this look, look for contemporary art that prioritizes clean lines and bold, unmixed aquatic tones over heavy shading.
Warming the Room with Double Portraits
While the pools are famous, his large-scale double portraits, often depicting couples in their own carefully styled domestic spaces, defined a different kind of warmth. These figurative works were heavily anchored in real, lived-in environments filled with plants, rugs, and mid-century furniture.
Hanging figurative art that utilizes this rich, slightly retro palette (think mustard yellows, soft pinks, and greens) can make a minimalist living room feel instantly more human and lived-in. The trick is to match the scale: a large portrait piece serves as an anchor, pulling together the disparate colors of your own furniture just as the painting pulls together the figures within it.
Embracing the Unapologetic Pop Palette
Perhaps his greatest legacy for interior styling is the permission to be aggressively cheerful. Hockney never shied away from the bright, artificial colors of modern life. He embraced the vividness of Pop Art but softened it with a deeply personal, observational touch.
If you have a room that feels slightly too serious or sterile (perhaps overwhelmed by white walls or gray upholstery), a single piece in this vein changes the entire atmosphere. You don't need to match it to your pillows. The joy of this style is that it stands apart, providing a deliberate splash of California optimism that works precisely because it refuses to blend in.
