David Hockney (1937–2026) was one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century. He produced work in almost every medium – painting, drawing, stage design, photography and printmaking – and stretched the boundaries of all of them. His groundbreaking Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters is published by Thames & Hudson, as are his books in partnership with Martin Gayford: A Bigger Message (2011), A History of Pictures (2016) and Spring Cannot be Cancelled (2021). Thames & Hudson also published the catalogue of his blockbuster exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in 2025. Martin Gayford is art critic for The Spectator. His books include Modernists & Mavericks, Man with a Blue Scarf, A Bigger Message, Rendez-vous with Art (with Philippe de Montebello), A History of Pictures (with David Hockney), and, most recently, The Pursuit of Art, all published by Thames & Hudson.

'This book is not so much a celebration of spring as a springboard for ideas about art, space, time and light. It is scholarly, thoughtful and provoking' - The Times

• 1 An unexpected move 2 Studio work 3 La vie française: French life in a Bohemian style 4 Lines and time 5 A merry Christmas and an unexpected New Year 6 Locked down in paradise 7 A house for an artist and a painter’s garden 8 The sky, the sky! 9 Sumptuous blacks and subtler greens 10 Several smaller splashes 11 Everything flows 12 Rippling lines and musical spaces 13 Lost (and found) in translation 14 Picasso, Proust, and pictures 15 Being somewhere 16 Full moon in Normandy