NEW YORK — A painting by the British artist David Hockney fetched $90.3 million at Christie’s on Thursday night, easily breaking the record for a work by a living artist sold at auction.

Among his famous “pool paintings,” “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)” is considered one of his premier works. The previous record by a living artist was set by Jeff Koons’ “Balloon Dog,” which sold for $58.4 million in 2013.

The 1972 painting by Hockney, now 81, is “the holy grail of his paintings, from both the historical and the market perspectives,” Alex Rotter, co-chairman of postwar and contemporary art at Christie’s, said in September.

Rotter noted that the painting reflects both the European and the American perspectives of an artist who came to live in sunny California in the ’60s, and saw himself as living on both continents.


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