David Hockney (b. 1937) is one of the most popular contemporary British artists. He won early critical acclaim as a student at the Royal College of Art; a move to the USA followed, and Hockney's vibrant images of the archetypal Californian private swimming pool, painted during the 1960s, have become classic icons of post-war art. In this extended interview, filmed at the major Tate Gallery retrospective exhibition of Hockney's work in 1988, he emerges as a highly entertaining commentator on his own work and on the artistic process generally. Beginning with a portrait of his own father, painted at the age of seventeen, and progressing to his experiments in the mid-1980s with complex photographic collages, Hockney illuminates his stylistic influences and working processes. He explores the impulses behind his handling of colour and methods of composition, acknowledging his debts to earlier artists, from Hogarth to Matisse and above all Picasso. This film provides an engaging overview of one of the most brilliant careers in modern art.