Meaning

Hockney is arguing that taste is not a passive gift or an accident of personality. It is something developed through sustained effort, through looking widely, thinking carefully, and making countless decisions over time. The word "hard work" places taste in the same category as any other serious skill: achievable, but not without real dedication.

Context

This remark comes from a 2011 interview and reflects a view Hockney has returned to throughout his career. In an era when taste is often treated as either innate or irrelevant, the claim that it matters and that it must be earned is a strong one. Hockney's own working life supports the point: he has spent decades drawing, painting, studying the history of art, and examining how pictures work. That accumulated discipline is precisely what he seems to mean by the hard work taste requires.

About the author

David Hockney is one of the most widely recognized British artists of his generation, known for a body of work that spans painting, drawing, photography, and digital media. Born in Yorkshire, he has lived and worked in Los Angeles, London, and the East Yorkshire countryside, each place feeding a different strand of his art. He is also known for his book on the use of optical devices by old master painters, which demonstrated the depth of his engagement with art history and with questions of craft and vision.