EAST Yorkshire artist David Hockney has been appointed a member of the Order of Merit by the Queen.

The Order of Merit is presented to high achievers in the arts, learning, literature, science and other areas such as public service.

Mr Hockney, 74, who has studios in Bridlington, attracted more than 130,000 visitors to York Art Gallery last year when it hosted his exhibition of Bigger Trees Near Warter.

The order, created by King Edward VII in 1902, is restricted to 24 members and rare additional foreign recipients.

The Order of Merit does not come with a title but members are given a red and blue enamel badge, which reads “For Merit”.

When a member dies the badge is returned to the Queen, who receives the next-of-kin personally.

In the 1990s Mr Hockney famously turned down a knighthood because he had been living in the US and “did not think it was for me but I don’t have strong feelings about the honours system”.

He was speaking after information about people who had turned down honours was leaked to the Sunday Times. In September, he told BBC Radio 4’s Front Row programme he had turned down a request to paint the Queen because he was “very busy”.

He said she would have made “a terrific subject” but he preferred to paint people he knew.

A Bigger Picture, an exhibition of Hockney landscapes, opens at the Royal Academy this month. Hockney, one of the best-known figures from the 1960s British pop art movement, first attracted interest while studying at the Royal College of Art.

His figurative drawings and paintings gave him a reputation as a figure who bridged high art and pop art while his blond, bespectacled, youthful appearance made him one of the faces of the decade.

In recent years, Hockney has returned to his native Yorkshire after spending years in California, where he had been inspired by light and space, with his paintings of swimming pools proving to be some of his most memorable works.