alt Hacker NewsThe Times has an Arts section, art critics, professional obituary writers, and a wealth of background in the area.
The BBC article was written by a guy who has precisely two articles published on the BBC.
I don't think it's wrong to want to read the best article, not the cheapest.
The cheapest? You’re not British are you! ;-)
The BBC’s arts coverage outright humbles the Times and has for decades. (Also better obituary writers IMO, but YMMV). It’s absolutely the BBC I would come to, to read about Hockney, not a Murdoch newspaper.
But inexpensive they are not.
Sam Woodhouse is a senior BBC journalist and that article includes footage from an outstanding BBC arts programme interview by another senior journalist, Katie Razzall.
Hopefully the BBC will interview one of their own greats, Melvyn Bragg, about him. Bragg and Hockney were friends for half a century.