"A short trip to New York City in 1961 established his lasting attraction to America, a place that to him felt less sexually repressive than England."

"Inspired by his stay, he made prints based on William Hogarth’s series of paintings 'A Rake’s Progress,' but he put that 18th-century morality tale — about a young man’s descent into perdition — in 20th-century terms. Mr. Hockney had the hero cruising runners in Central Park, drinking in gay bars and heading to jail. The episodes were depicted in a visually distinctive style: half-abstract but grounded in realistic details. By the time he finished the series, he was himself visually striking, with a high-color wardrobe of plaid suits, striped soccer jerseys and mismatched colored socks, owlish glasses and bleached blond hair. With a graduation gold medal awarded by the Royal Academy — received with the artist wearing a gold lamé jacket to the ceremony — and London gallery representation secured, Mr. Hockney was a British star on the rise...."

From "David Hockney, Who Restored the Human Form to Art, Dies at 88/His colorful figurative paintings were both conservative and iconoclastic, defying the dominant abstract schools of the mid-20th century" (NYT)(gift link, because there's much more to read and lots of great photos of Hockney and his much-loved paintings).