Pop artist, painter of modern life, landscape painter, color virtuoso, explorer of image and perception – for six decades David Hockney known as an artist who always finds new ways to explore the world and its possibilities of representation . In doing so, he creates consistently unforgettable images: free works with drawing lines and integrated text from the time of Swinging London of the 1960s ; the famous Swimming pool series as a chronicler of Californian Way of Life in the 1970s; closely observed Portraits and brightly colored, oversized Landscapes after his late return to his native Yorkshire. In addition to Drawings in which he transfers what he sees directly onto paper are multi-perspective Polaroid collages that open the space into a multitude of detailed views, or iPad drawings in which he captures the light using today's means – evidence of Hockney's constant joy of experimentation.

This Special Edition was published for the 40th anniversary of TASCHEN from the two volumes of the monograph David Hockney: A Bigger Book newly compiled: Life and work year after year as a dialogue of Hockney’s own works as well as the voices of the time, reviews and reflections of the artist in a chronological text, supplemented by Portrait photographs and exhibition views . Together, they create a perspective in which, page by page, we witness Hockney's artistic research, the development of his painting, and where he finds inspiration for his diverse work.