This fluid, entertaining biography of the tireless painter, printmaker, draftsman, stage designer, photographer, and, most recently, iPad auteur aims “to conjure up the man that he is and in doing so to put his paintings and drawings in the context of his extraordinary life.” The first of two volumes, it begins with Hockney’s birth, in 1937, in an industrial town in Yorkshire; it covers his early success at the Royal College of Art, in London, and his subsequent move to California, where he painted his iconic swimming-pool acrylics. The book ends in 1975, with Hockney designing sets for a famous production of Stravinsky’s opera “The Rake’s Progress.” Meticulously researched, Sykes’s account is a pleasure to read, particularly his descriptions of Hockney’s parents and their influence on their son. His father, who was staunchly antiwar, embellished his clothing by hand and first kindled his son’s interest in painting by restoring prams in the family basement.