British artist David Hockney was
one of only two people named to the Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth II
in her 2012 New Year’s Honors (or, to use the Queen’s English,
"Honours") list. The other recipient is John Howard, Australia’s
second-longest serving prime minister. (As the head of state for
Australia, the queen can grant knighthoods and other honors in that
continent.)
At age 74, Hockney is enjoying the kind of recognition
that comes with a lifetime of achievement. The Royal Academy in London
is mounting a major retrospective of his works. The art critic for the
(U.K.) Daily Telegraph, in reviewing the exhibit, "Britain’s greatest living artist," which he probably is, with the recent passing of the only other person who could possibly aspire to the title, Lucien Freud.
Hockney is also making news for a pointed jab at another near-legendary British artist. The Montreal Gazette reports that, in the glow of his elevation by the queen, Hockney made sure the
poster for his Royal Academy show noted, "All the works here were made
by the artist himself, personally."
That was widely taken as a
reference to Damien Hirst, who admits he "outsources" his work when he
gets bored. Hockney, according to the newspaper, has freely admitted the
reference.
Unlike Hirst, Andy Warhol or Jeff Koons, Hockney is strictly
Old School. When he met Marc Chagall’s granddaughter, she told him the
great Russian-French painter in his old age just wanted to paint. "Well,
of course, what else would you want to do when you’ve done this all of
your life?" he told her. "When you are older, you realise that
everything else is just nothing compared to painting and drawing."
Hockney
began his career in the then-new medium photo collage. Born in the
English county of Yorkshire, he spent many years in Los Angeles, where
his unique style of cool blues and bright yellows became refined in a
series of paintings of California swimming pool -- sometimes decorated
with a beautiful naked young man.
In 1974, Hockney was the
subject of a documentary film, "A Bigger Splash," named after one his
paintings. He has gone on to fame designing operas for the Met in New
York and British companies.
It is notable that the queen offered
Hockney a knighthood in 1990, which he turned down. He has been with
professional chef John Fitzherbert for over 20 years.
More about Hockney from wikipedia (which makes no reference to his being gay or having a partner:
A conscientious objector, Hockney worked as a medical orderly in hospitals as his National Service 1957–59.
He was made a Companion of Honour in 1997 and is also a Royal Academician.
Hockney was offered a knighthood in 1990 but he declined the offer before accepting an Order of Merit in January 2012. He was awarded The Royal Photographic Society's Progress medal in 1988^[and Centenary medal in 2003.
Hockney serves on the advisory board of the political magazine Standpoint, and contributed original sketches for its launch edition, in June 2008.
He is a staunch pro-tobacco campaigner and was invited to guest-edit the Today programme on 29 December 2009 to air his views on the subject.
In October 2010 he and 100 other leading artists signed an open
letter to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Jeremy
Hunt protesting against cutbacks in the arts.
And from glbtq.com which does:


David Hockney

Another openly gay British artist, David Hockney (b. 1937) sometimes treats
the male form in a funky, even whimsical manner. Hockney developed a distinct
style during his studies at the Royal College of Art in London in the late
1950s. Representational but deliberately naïve, his style was influenced by both
abstract art and children's drawings.
Hockney has deemed a work that dates from this early period, We Two Boys
Together Clinging (1961), propaganda for homosexuality. In the painting, two
scribbled, simplistic, human forms embrace and kiss one another. Alluding to the
poem by Walt Whitman, the artist incorporated the words "we two boys together
clinging" into the composition.







Hockney moved to Los Angeles in 1964, perhaps in part drawn by California's
more relaxed attitude toward homosexuality. In Los Angeles, blue skies, swimming
pools, and
homoerotic images of tanned young men became the most common themes of his increasingly
naturalistic work. The voyeuristic Man Taking Shower in Beverly Hills (1964), for example, features a nude male seen from the side bending over in
the shower.