Hockney Donates 40-Footer to Tate

David Hockney has donated his largest-ever painting to London's Tate museum rather than sell it for a presumed price of several million dollars, reports the Times of London. Hockney, one of the world's foremost figurative painters, said donating the 40-foot-long Bigger Trees Near Warter was a "duty," and added, "You've got to be reasonably generous to be an artist."

The British painter, who has lived in Los Angeles for nearly 30 years, praised the American system of offering tax breaks to artists who donate work to public collections and encouraged the British government to do the same. Bigger Trees Near Warter, displayed last year at London's Royal Academy, was painted on 50 separate canvases with the help of digital technology. (More David Hockney stories.)