The relationship between art and life has been of overriding importance in the work of David Hockney. This study traces these connections from the beginning of the artist's career in the early 1960s through to the more recent works that have contributed to Hockney's international reputation. These include his photocollages and stage designs for the opera, as well as his embrace of technology - namely the fac drawinga and colour laser prints - which show the continuing preoccupation with invention and artifice that has made the artist's work both popular and enduring.