Tate presents David Hockney retrospective

David Hockney is nearly deaf and has survived a heart attack, a stroke and numerous other ailments - but hasn't lost his distinctly British sense of humor. Rarely seen without a hat of some kind, the artist turns 80 on July 9.

The sunny weather in California was a draw for the young painter David Hockney. He has lived on and off in Los Angeles for many years. Despite his attraction to the glamorous region, Hockney always included the shadowy side of luxury in his large-scale pool paintings. This one, "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)," is from 1972.

As a young painter, David Hockney spent time experimenting with his style. This early work, "Domestic Scene," is from 1963. In that year, he was granted his first solo exhibition in London's Paul Kasim Gallery. Hockney, who is openly gay, dealt with homosexual themes in his work.

This 1968 photo-realistic painting of Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, a well known gay couple in Los Angeles, shot Hockney to fame. During the 1960s, progressive California was caught up in the hippie movement. The liberal attitudes, as well as the local landscape and climate, left a lasting impression on the artist.

Hockney enjoyed painting portraits. "The most interesting aspect of other people - the point where we go inside them - is the face," he said. His portraits often appear to be quite intimate, but nevertheless display a cool distance. This one, a chalk sketch titled, "Ossie, Wearing a Fairisle Sweater," is from 1970.

As a successful artist, Hockney was up to his ears in requests for exhibitions and assignments by the 1970s. He grew exhausted, as shown in the work "Model with Unfinished Self-Portrait." In 1975, he went back to his roots and painted stage backdrops, drafting the setting for "The Rake's Progress" at the Glyndebourne Opera and later for opera houses in San Francisco, New York and Chicago.

When Hockney moved to California in the 1960s, friends asked him what he could possibly want in the cultural desert. He replied that Hollywood was the home of high culture. He loved cinema and often went to movies as a child - diving into worlds that were far away from the gray suburb he grew up in. As a successful artist, he could later afford a house in the Hollywood hills - like this one.

At some point, the British artist grew tired of the endless summer on California's coast and the never-ending horizons of the American landscape, as seen here in his photo collage, "Pearblossom Hwy." (1986), which he gifted to the Getty Museum in LA upon his departure. Hockney returned to the four seasons in Europe, first moving to Paris and later to London.

Back in Europe, the painter returned to his British hometown as a painter of landscapes, as seen here in "Woolgate Woods, 6 & 9 November 2006." He spent a lot of time on the road, taking photographs, and discovered the digital world of computer-generated images. Often, his work is hung as a series of images side-by-side, giving an impression of surrealism.

David Hockney has painted nearly 2,000 images over the course of his life. Retirement is not a word in his vocabulary. This large painting, "9 Canvas Study of The Grand Canyon" from 1998, is among those on display at the exhibition at London's Tate Britain.