The celebrated British artist David Hockney, one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries, passed away peacefully at home on 11 June 2026, one month short of his 89th birthday.

Hockney was a painter whose restless intelligence and chromatic brilliance placed him at the centre of British cultural life for more than half a century.

He never much liked being told what to do. When London’s Royal College of Art (RCA) threatened to withhold his degree in 1962 because he refused to sit a written examination – on the grounds that he should be judged solely on his art – the RCA eventually backed down. It was a small incident, but characteristic of the man. Throughout his career, Hockney remained resolutely, cheerfully himself: a northern working-class boy with peroxide hair, thick-rimmed glasses and an absolute conviction that painting mattered, that looking mattered, and that joy was not a lesser artistic emotion than suffering.

He was born in Bradford in July 1937, the fourth of five children, into a working-class household where his father, Kenneth, was an accountant's clerk and his mother, Laura, a devout Methodist. Kenneth had been a conscientious objector during the Second World War – a piece of principled stubbornness that Hockney seemed to have inherited. He studied first at Bradford College of Art and then, from 1959, at the RCA, where he graduated with a Gold Medal in 1962, entering a London art scene already crackling with energy, from Francis Bacon's visceral figuration to the kitchen-sink social realism of the Euston Road painters.

His peers at the RCA included Derek Boshier, Allen Jones, Patrick Caulfield and Peter Phillips, as well as the fashion designers Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell, and a young Ridley Scott. It was a remarkable cohort, and Hockney stood out even within it – irreverent, prolific and already commercially astute. His first solo show at John Kasmin's Mayfair gallery in 1963 sold out entirely. Soon after, he boarded a plane for California.

Los Angeles was a revelation. The light, the heat, the unabashed hedonism of it, Hockney absorbed all of it into his palette and never quite let go. The swimming pool paintings that followed: A Bigger Splash, Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool, the whole glittering series – weren't simply celebrations of Californian leisure. They were studies in surface and transparency, in the way light behaves differently through water than through air, painted with an economy of means that disguised their considerable technical sophistication.

California also gave Hockney something harder to articulate: the freedom to live and work openly as a gay man, at a time when that required real courage. His relationships fed directly into the work, nowhere more so than in Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) from 1972, painted in a ferocious 48-hour sprint after Hockney saw a chance photograph and understood immediately what the picture had to be. The figure standing at the water's edge, watching the swimmer below, carries a weight of unspoken feeling that has made the painting one of the most quietly devastating images in postwar art. In 2018, it sold at auction for $90 million, a record for a living artist.

The 1970s brought further brilliance and some turbulence. The end of his relationship with Peter Schlesinger – the young art student who had been his partner, model and muse – hit him hard, and the paintings from that period carry a more pensive quality, an awareness of absence running beneath their polished surfaces. Jack Hazan's 1974 film A Bigger Splash, in which Hockney played himself, documented something of that emotional aftermath, and remains one of the stranger and more compelling portraits of an artist at work.

Through the 1980s, Hockney threw himself into photography with the same intellectual restlessness that characterised everything he touched. His photo-collages, which he called ‘joiners’, assembled dozens of individual prints into composite images that deliberately fractured single-point perspective, drawing on Cubism's logic to produce something entirely his own. He also became a sought-after stage designer, producing celebrated productions for Glyndebourne, the Metropolitan Opera and the Chicago Lyric Opera, work that gave his already vivid colour sense a theatrical scale it relished.

The 2017 retrospective at Tate Britain became the most visited exhibition in the gallery's history, a statistic that said something about both the breadth of Hockney’s audience and the warmth with which British culture had come to regard him. By then, he had long since returned to Yorkshire, to the wide skies and skeletal hedgerows of the East Riding, painting the same lanes and woodlands through every season with an insistence that felt almost devotional.

The enormous canvases of The Arrival of Spring series, acid green and blossom-bright, were not the work of a man winding down. He published a book of interviews during the pandemic entitled Spring Cannot Be Cancelled, a title that captured something essential about his entire outlook: that beauty persists, that the world is worth attending to, that making pictures of it is one of the more dignified things a person can do.

He declined a knighthood. He embraced the iPad with the same enthusiasm he had once brought to the fax machine and the Polaroid. He accepted the Order of Merit in 2012, and was seen to be genuinely pleased by it. He kept painting.

What Hockney leaves behind goes well beyond the canonical images – the pools, the portraits, the Yorkshire lanes – though those alone would have secured his place in art history several times over. He leaves behind a model of what it means to be a working artist: curious, prolific, resistant to fashion, and absolutely certain that the world, looked at with enough attention, never runs out of things to give.

It’s fitting that an exhibition that ponders the passing of time opens in the first warm days of spring, but David Hockney has been nothing if not perceptive to subtle shifts in mood throughout his seven-decade career.

After his major retrospective at Fondation Louis Vuitton last year, which united more than 400 of his works, from 1955 to 2025, the new exhibition at London’s Serpentine, ‘A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting’, offers a more intimate peek into Hockney’s world, and is none the worse for it. Rather than a vast overview of his career, here we have a more focused insight into Hockney as the artist he is now.

At 88, Hockney continues to be drawn to everyday fluctuations, in light, mood and season. Encircling the exhibition space is a panoramic frieze of more than 100 iPad paintings that Hockney created during lockdown in 2020, documenting the changing daily view from his former studio in Normandy, France.

While inspired by both the Bayeux Tapestry and Chinese scroll paintings in their horizontal, narrative format, these works are unapologetically modern. Hockney’s experiments in creating digital paintings on the iPad encompass flat planes of colour, reminiscent of his saturated Los Angeles swimming pools in the 1960s, but here defined by the rich green of the French countryside as it fades into winter and springs back into life.

Thrilling, at Serpentine, is a series of ten new works created in late 2025 for this exhibition. The five still-lifes and five portraits offer a glimpse into Hockney’s daily life now, populated by the friends, family and carers who are closest to him. There is a uniformity running through these new works, which are united by their straight-on perspective and the checkered-tablecloth stage, gently angled towards our perspective as viewers.

Sitters, who include Hockney’s partner and studio manager Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima, his great-nephew Richard Hockney and close acquaintance Joe Hage, are drawn with fond personal and mischievous detailing. Jack Ransome, who designed Hockney’s glasses, smirks in his portrait, while carer Thomas Mupfupi is proudly sporting a badge Hockney designed, ‘END BOSSINESS SOON’.

In the five still-lifes, Hockney continues his exploration into a blend of the abstract and figurative, with works such as Abstraction Resting on a Grey and White Checkered Tablecloth offering a considered development on his belief that all figurative painting is abstract, as long as it is on a flat surface. By playfully juxtaposing the two, Hockney is still asking us to do the only thing that matters – to see.

David Hockney, 'A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting' at Serpentine North, free to view, from 12 March – 23 August 2026

serpentinegalleries.org

It is 1972, and Miss World is everywhere. Sculptor and performance artist Andrew Logan, meanwhile, has spent the day at Crufts Dog Show. He wonders, what would happen if you were to combine the two, blending swimwear and evening wear criteria with the poise demanded of the well-behaved hounds? And lo, Alternative Miss World is born.

Contestants in the first Alternative Miss World stood on a stage of vegetable boxes in Logan’s studio, in a bid to impress judges including David Hockney. Its reputation ballooned – the following year, people squeezed through the windows to get in. In 1978, Logan went public, renting Clapham Common for £200 for the event. Judges vied for a spot – so far, co-hosts and contestants have included Divine, Leigh Bowery, Zandra Rhodes, Jarvis Cocker, Derek Jarman, Brian Eno and Grayson Perry. Events were themed, becoming a massive party. For 1978’s extravaganza, the circus theme was resided over by Logan in full regalia. Judges, perched in lion cages, led proceedings alongside guest of honour Divine. Filmmaker Richard Gayer was on hand to record the spectacle.

Gayer’s finished film was scheduled to premiere the same evening as the Miss World televised event. But competition organiser Eric Morley had a different idea, putting a stop to the planned showing with a threatened litigation, arguing Logan was not entitled to use the Miss World name. Ignoring an invitation to a private screening from the filmmakers, the case went to court.

The filmmakers hired the barristers they could afford, including one Tony Blair, future prime minister and then in the early stages of his legal career. He didn’t utter a word the whole trial, says Logan. But, ‘I do remember him for his teeth. Wonderful teeth. Great big smile.’

The judge agreed if the public confused the two events it would be financially and reputationally damaging to Miss World, and granted an injunction – the filmmakers could go ahead, but couldn’t use Miss World in the title. When their promotional bus arrived, it advertised ‘The Alternative’ with ‘Miss World’ casually crossed off.

The case returned to court. Logan wore a jacket made of pieces of disco balls, as well as an eye brooch that winked at the judge throughout. This time, they won, with the judge noting it wasn’t a film about beautiful girls, but a film of the grotesque. But, the distributors were spooked, and the film didn’t go ahead – although, 50 years later, Logan and Alternative Miss World are still going strong.

It’s a great story, and one which continues to resonate, particularly with filmmakers Maya Avidov and Savannah James-Bayly, who tell the story in documentary short, Too Disgusting to be Confused, which will premiere at Raindance Film Festival ahead of its launch.

The duo got to know Logan before, picking out the strands of the story in the creation of a comprehensive narrative. ‘He's so good on camera,’ says Avidov. ‘He’s very charismatic and very happy to be there. He's totally happy in the present and happy to talk about the past. I’d say the hardest part was letting go. There's so much to tell.’

‘We were very lucky in that we managed to get in touch with Richard Gayer, who made the film that caused the backlash, and he was able to fill in a lot of the gaps,’ adds James-Bayly. ‘There was no shortage of content. Our initial cut was much longer than 12 minutes.’

Too Disgusting to be Confused is part of the Netflix Documentary Talent Fund 2025. All films from this year's cohort will be premiering at Raindance Film Festival on the 26th June

The films will be available to stream on Netflix’s Still Watching YouTube Channel from 27th June 2025

Now in its fifth year, London Gallery Weekend returns once more from 6 – 8 June, featuring over 125 contemporary galleries across the city. One of the world’s largest events of its kind, it celebrates the art and creativity of the UK capital, presenting the works of established and emerging talents of diverse backgrounds. This year sees artists tackling pressing societal issues such as our changing ecological climate, external cultural, political, social and economic factors that impact our lives, contemporary consumption habits and what identity, belonging, and community look like today. Alongside the exhibitions, performances, live talks and special events will also take place over the three-day weekend.

Shyama Golden ‘Too Bad, So Sad, Maybe Next Birth’ at PM/AM, until 1 July

The title is a phrase Shyama Golden’s parents use when things do not go according to plan. Searching for the meaning of life while recognising that living and dying are inherently spiritual, the reincarnation-like works in the exhibition – her first solo presentation in the UK, are divided into four acts, each presented through a pair of oil paintings– a large-scale scene and its close-up vignette counterpart that reflect the tension between individual destiny and the external factors that influence our lives. Golden, who is of Sri Lankan heritage and resides in America, explores the patterns shaping migration, such as economic, political, and environmental factors, alongside class and cultural inheritance. The blue Kolam theatre mask of her alter ego ‘Maya’ reappears in different identities and eras, drawing influence from her personal memory and Sri Lanka’s rich folklore, which blends dance and ritual (including the island’s supernatural demon-protrayed Yakas). Merging the autobiographical and mythical, an essence of melancholy and outlandishness pervades her dreamscape, surreal paintings like ‘Hollywood 1979', illustrating the strangeness of LA.

pmam.org

Philippe Parreno 'El Almendral' at Pilar Corrias until 28 June

Having a long-standing partnership with the gallery, this new exhibition focuses on ecology, blending cinematic visuals with real landscapes into a hybrid structure. It examines the relationship between fact and fiction, land and landscape, by redefining traditional views of ecological knowledge. Situated on a 33-hectare plot north of Spain’s Tabernas Desert in the province of Almeria, the film is linked to a newly completed park envisioned as a site of transformation. 'El Almendral' serves simultaneously as a changing film set and ecological habitat, which will continually stream in real-time– day and night, in the main gallery space and present as a living narrative responsive to environmental shifts and seasonal cycles. Alongside the film, works from Parreno’s ongoing Marquee series, of translucent acrylic glass designs with light bulbs, will be displayed. They take inspiration from the mid-20th-century flickering, neon-lit marquees that hung above cinema entrances announcing the titles of films being screened.

pilarcorrias.com

Michaela Yearwood-Dan ‘No Time for Despair’ at Hauser & Wirth until 2 August

Michaela Yearwood-Dan's artworks hold space for joy and community. Her inaugural solo exhibition at Hauser & Wirth showcases a range of new paintings, spanning from large, expansive pieces to more intimate works. Richly coloured and detailed, her paintings merge the political with the personal, influenced by elements such as healing rituals, queerness, blackness, and femininity. The exhibition also features ceramic sculptures, benches adorned with flowers, and an immersive sound piece developed in collaboration with composer Alex Gruz. Through these various mediums, the artist explores queer community, following an intuition that embraces fluidity over rigid identities. The show's title refers to Toni Morrison’s article in The Nation, which asserts, ‘In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.’ Yearwood-Dan's art evokes a sense of optimism, serving as a call to action to connect, seek joy amid darkness, and embrace an infinite way of existing.

hauserwirth.com

David Hockney 'In the Mood for Love: Hockney in London, 1960-1963' at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert until 18 July

This comprehensive survey focuses on the period from 1960 to 1963, a crucial time in David Hockney’s career, showcasing early paintings, prints, and drawings from both private and public collections, many of which have not been exhibited since the 1960s. It outlines his artistic development at the Royal College of Art and the years immediately following his graduation. Hockney’s creativity flourished after moving from Bradford to study at the RCA, where he drew inspiration from European and American artists such as Jackson Pollock and Picasso. During this time, he cultivated a distinctive and bold visual style that led to his Love series. Pieces such as ‘The First Love Painting’ (1960), ‘Love Painting – Shame’ (1960), and ‘Composition (Thrust)’ (1962) from the RCA’s collection are also featured in the gallery. Influential literary figures, including Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy and American poet Walt Whitman, along with his friends and lovers– who became prominent subjects in his artwork, shaped his vision during the 1960s, as illustrated by works like ‘The Cha Cha that was Danced in the Early Hours of 24th March 1961’ (1961).

hh-h.com

Modupeola Fadugba 'Of Movement, Materials and Methods' at Gallery 1957 until 29 June

Known for her body of work centred around water as a portal for both resistance and release, Nigerian artist Modupeola Fadugba’s solo exhibition signifies a departure in her artistic practice from the theme of water, with her paintings of solitary swimmers transitioning to solid ground, centring on collective choreography through a personal yet expansive meditation on transformation and heritage. It draws inspiration from the vibrant pageantry of the Ojude Oba festival, held annually in Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria – an ancient festival celebrated by the Yoruba people. The festival is renowned for its equestrian parade, magnificent attire, and deeply rooted communal traditions, which embody a dynamic symbol of unity, cultural continuity, and identity. With her background in chemical engineering and a mixed media practice, she employs fire-scorched surfaces– burning the canvas, layering beading, and incorporating gold leaf. She integrates traditional Nigerian motifs and layers hues of magenta and coral to capture the festival’s striking atmosphere and vibrancy. Through this multi-layered approach and collaboration with local artisans, Fadugba creates art that possesses an aesthetic language rooted in materiality, community, and diasporic memory.

gallery1957.com

‘Finding My Blue Sky’ at Lisson Gallery 27 Bell Street and 67 Lisson Street until 26 July

Featuring the work of 20 artists of diverse nationalities and ages, including Lubaina Himid, Haroon Mirza, Otobong Nkanga, Barbara Walker, Huguette Caland, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Laure Prouvost, Celia Hempton, among others, the exhibition held across the gallery’s two London spaces and the surrounding neighbourhood in Edware Road, investigates themes of memory, migration, belonging and the search for sanctuary, all explorations that feel pressing in today’s challenging world. Curated by the Director of Collections at the Sharjah Art Foundation, Dr. Omar Kholeif, it’s framed as his “love-letter to London” and takes inspiration from Kholeif’s experience as the child of Sudanese and Egyptian parents, his 40-year relationship with the city– a place of return and reflection, and his encounter and formative interactions with artists. The exhibition combines cultural and geographical differences that coincide with personal narratives. It invites the viewer to dream of their own aesthetic politics. Appropriately, the parallel title in Arabic poses the question: “What is the World that you Dream of?”

lissongallery.com

Kialy Tihngang ‘Icyyy Grip’ at Studio/Chapple until 29 June

The pink space with its draped, silk fabric echoes a beauty salon or a young girl’s bedroom. However, the subject of the exhibition is much darker than its bubblegum pink hues. Comprised of three parts, the project is an auto-ethnographic study into breast ironing and the artist’s personal experience with breast reduction surgery. A niche cultural practice in rural parts of her familial home country of Cameroon, girls are subjected to having their chest pounded with heated objects to stop breast development in the hopes of preventing sexual assault, unwanted attention and early pregnancy. It’s carried out by older female relatives– mothers, aunts and even grandmothers, passing down physical and psychological scars. Being born in the UK and having the autonomy to get breast reduction surgery in 2021, the procedure also made her think about the colonial photography of bare-breasted women and girls whose bodies were seen as sexualised subjects and viewed with disgust. The display includes ‘Flattening Suit’, a wearable, technological tool designed to compress the breasts, and the video ‘Visualisation’, 2025.

studiochapple.com

Richard Hunt ‘Metamorphosis – A Retrospective’ at White Cube Bermondsey until 29 June

The first major European exhibition dedicated to the Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt (1935–2023) features over 40 significant sculptures and works on paper created between the 1950s until the artist’s death in 2023. Throughout his 70-year career, he has made 160 large-scale commissioned public art pieces displayed across America and internationally, held over 170 global solo shows, and is the first African American artist to have a retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MOMA), in 1971 at the age of 35. As one of the preeminent American sculptors of the 20th and 21st centuries, he is renowned for his instinctive and innovative work in metal, inspired by the natural world, mythical tales from ancient Greece and Rome, European Modernist art, his travels abroad, and his cultural heritage, alongside the legacy of African American civil rights heroes including Martin Luther King Jr, Jesse Owens, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Mary McLeod Bethune, who influenced his artistic practice. Hunt’s experimental works exhibit a hybridity of the industrial, abstract, geometric, and natural, having conceived a sculptural language that is both personal and reflective of the world around him. One of his final projects is a sculpture commissioned by Barack Obama for the Obama Presidential Center, situated on the South Side of Chicago, which is scheduled to open in 2026.

whitecube.com

'Best Self' at Brooke Benington until 28 June

This group show exhibits the works of Juno Calypso, Polly Morgan, Christopher Page, Mat Collishaw, Boo Saville, Julia Thompson and Bengt Tibet, and presents the question of how many selves we possess and whether friendship might blossom if they encountered one another. Perhaps the Best Self would applaud the bravery and courage of being makeup-free. The hidden self might even admire the public self for putting it ‘out there’. Whatever the case, it seeks to interrogate how we adopt a facade that we protect or contort to fit with societal expectations. Consider The Substance by Coralie Fargeat, where best Sue is disgusted by worst Elizabeth’s binge eating, keeping her hidden away. We live in a world that suggests the more we acquire wealth, youth and beauty, the further we can stray from decay and death. Billionaires are even exploring ways to make the fountain of eternal youth a reality.

brookebenington.com

Kayode Ojo ‘An angel is just a messenger’ at Maureen Paley until 8 June

For his first solo show with the gallery and in the UK, Kayode Ojo draws on materials from online retailers and fast fashion websites, integrating the activities of browsing, scrolling, and purchasing into his artistic process. The displayed objects demonstrate how items can elevate social status and include captions taken from original online descriptions, which employ search-optimised keywords to attract potential buyers. Contemporary e-commerce is significantly shaped by algorithmic systems. Through this exhibition's series of works, Ojo's pieces underscore the superficiality of taste and the aspirations tied to it. Accompanying the artwork are photographs from his ongoing series that capture nightlife scenes and their fleeting interactions, revealing the eroticism and extravagance inherent in those settings. The show's title is inspired by a quote from Ojo’s Evangelical Christian father that an angel is just a messenger. “And what is a contemporary artist if not a messenger?”

maureenpaley.com

It was in 2020, while isolating in his Normandy house, that David Hockney used the phrase, ‘Do remember, they can’t cancel the spring’, a reminder that sat alongside the drawings of daffodils he was sending to his friends to cheer them up.

A similarly resolute, colourful homage to the brilliant relentlessness of life also lies at the heart of Hockney’s largest ever exhibition, at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. More than 400 of his works, created between 1955 and 2025, are featured, bringing together a variety of mediums, from oil and acrylic painting, pencil and charcoal drawings to digital works, including those created on an iPad, and video installations.

Inside ‘David Hockney 25’ at Paris’ Fondation Louis Vuitton

Hockney’s earliest works are included here. Portrait of my Father (1955), created during his youth in Bradford, West Yorkshire, segues into work from the years he spent in London and California. Here, also, are the strikingly simple lines of Hockney’s swimming pools, their bright, flat surfaces stripping the scenes back to a joyful hedonism. The blossoming of his distinctive figurative style takes shape in portraits, some of friends, some of those close to him as the artist explored his homosexuality.

It is Hockney’s later career that is the focus throughout, however, with particular attention paid to work created over the last 25 years. Frank Gehry’s 11 galleries at Fondation Louis Vuitton, taking the form of wind-blown glass sails billowing towards the neighbouring Jardin d’Acclimatation, are a light-filled foil for Hockney’s nature trail, winding its way around the building’s fluid floor plan.

Nature blooms in all its glory. Landscapes may have always been present in Hockney’s oeuvre, but here they are omnipresent, a move that can be traced back to the 1990s, when Hockney began to spend more time in Yorkshire, away from his Los Angeles home, eventually returning to settle there in 1999 after the death of his mother. The seasons begin to appear in his work, an antidote to the persistent California sun. References to classical English landscapes by JMW Turner and John Constable become intertwined with a riot of bold colour.

We see it again in the work Hockney created during the four years he spent in Normandy, from 2019 to 2023. In 2020, he tasked himself with bringing 220 views to life. Taking just a small area to study, Hockney documents the changing seasons but also the minutiae of daily life, the small gradients in colour of the vividly painted sky bringing to mind a vision of Hockney, out at dusk or dawn, revelling in the ‘Englishness’ of his French surroundings.

There is a room dedicated to a series of nocturnal works: hushed, shrouded in darkness, Hockney’s moon glows, a symbol of permeance he returns to again and again. The use of the iPad makes this repetition seamless, a fact that doesn’t take away from the respect the works are afforded, framed like the paintings.

The later works can take unexpected forms. Hockney loves music, incorporating the apparel of the stage into his work from the 1960s onwards, with characters, costumes, curtains and sets becoming regular motifs. In new creation Hockney Paints the Stage, he rethinks his drawings as musical performances, embodying a riot of colour and movement.

This interest in eclectic mediums can be seen in the Normandy work too. In 2018, Hockney was returning to the area, heading to Bayeux to see Queen Matilda’s tapestry, something he was repeatedly drawn back to. While there, he decided to stay and paint the seasons. Le Grande Cour, created the following year, is composed of 24 ink drawings, displayed as a panorama in a tribute to the Bayeux tapestry. The result eschews sacred and religious motifs, focusing on the simplicity of the elements. Cars in the garage, fruit trees, a stream – we’re far from the acrid desert landscape now.

‘Do remember, they can’t cancel the spring’, Hockney says again, in the subtitle of the exhibition, and in his most recent self-portrait, Play within a Play within a Play and Me with a Cigarette. It’s a full circle moment for Hockney – splendidly attired in a tweed suit, work on his knee, sitting in the garden, and the daffodils are springing up all around him.

‘David Hockney 25’ is at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris from 9 April to 31 August 2025, fondationlouisvuitton.fr/en

The accompanying book, David Hockney, edited by Norman Rosenthal, is published by Thames & Hudson in association with Fondation Louis Vuitton, also available from Amazon

It’s half a century since BMW pioneered the intersection between automotive design and fine art. The very first BMW Art Car was unveiled in 1975, the work of American sculptor Alexander Calder. The idea came from French auctioneer and racing driver Hervé Poulai, who convinced Jochen Neerpasch, the founder and head of BMW Motorsport, to let Calder create the livery of the BMW 3.0 CSL he was entering into that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Despite not finishing, Poulain’s idea set the stage for more collaborations, buoyed by a positive public reception.

The scheme was driven by a collaboration with Leo Castelli, the pioneering New York art gallerist and dealer. Castelli’s contacts brought Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol into the project to create new liveries for Poulain’s subsequent drives at Le Mans. Then in the early 1980s, the Art Car programme opened up and invited artists to work on standard product models, before returning to a racing focus in 1999. Since then, the BMW Art Car has been a dynamic expression of the company’s commitment to the arts in all its forms, ‘a perfect playground for art and design, technology and innovation, motorsport and engineering’.

To celebrate the scope and scale of this ongoing corporate commitment, BMW has released archive imagery of the works in progress, as well as announced a worldwide celebratory programme of exhibitions and displays. The BMW Art Car World Tour will roll through 2025 and 2026, taking select cars to auto shows and fairs, including Art Basel Hong Kong, the Shanghai Auto Show, Art Basel and Contemporary Istanbul. There will also be a major display at the Louwman Museum in The Hague throughout July and August 2025, featuring eight of the 20 cars.

The BMW Art Cars and their creators

Further information on the BMW Art Car Collection can be found at BMW.com

David Hockney is one of the world’s most famous living artists — pioneer of gay identity, icon of swinging ‘60s London, chronicler of people and places in his adopted city of Los Angeles, scholar of Picasso— and the subject of countless retrospectives. However, a show at the Palm Springs Art Museum addresses all of that and more with the revealing title David Hockney: Perspective Should Be Reversed: Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation.

Comprised entirely of prints ranging from the traditional lithography Hockney began in the 1950s to his current mastery of the iPhone and iPad, the 160 works are from the singular Jordan Schnitzer. The Portland, Oregon collector, owning more than 20,000 pieces of modern and contemporary art, has devoted himself to acquiring complete sets of editioned works by contemporary legends like Jasper Johns, Ellworth Kelly, John Baldessari and others. He says, “Once I bought that first work of art, it just never stopped. Now I have no sense of ownership but a great sense of stewardship.” The Schnitzer Foundation regularly funds and supports exhibitions of their prints.

Though many have tested the boundaries of printmaking, Hockney has used it to question what constitutes fine art. The consummate painter and colourist embraces untested technologies. The show includes his chaotic collages of multiple photographs to explore ideas about Picasso’s use of perspective. It was through photography that he began researching the camera lucida, its role in Renaissance painting and ideas about “reversing perspective.”

“The moment you realise what Picasso is doing, how he is using time as well—and that is why you could see round the back of the body as well as the front—once you begin to realise this, it becomes a very profound experience, because you begin to see what he is doing is not as a distortion and slowly, it then begins to look more and more real, in fact, it is naturalism that begins to look less and less real.”

Using a Pentax camera, Hockney combined numerous snaps to complete a portrait of his visiting mother in a way that she is swept into the tumult of his shelves of Zervos catalogs and his own Picasso painting while her white handbag and green suitcase lay touchingly on the carpeted floor. 'My Mother Los Angeles' (1982) exemplifies his exploration of Cubist perspective, which evolves throughout the exhibition.

Hockney gravitated to technological innovation in tandem with his interest in Picasso. Using a xerox machine in the 1980s, he made numerous still lifes and interiors whose charm is at odds with their humble origins. He liked the immediacy of printing an image, changing it and reprinting it on the spot.

But it is digital technology that has captured his heart and mind. “Digital photography can free us from a chemically imposed perspective that has lasted for 180 years,” he insists. A 2014 'photographic drawing' titled 'Perspective Should Be Reversed' features images of his friends standing in a room with a drawn red table that appears to move towards, instead of away, from the viewer. The real and invented coalesce.

Now living in France, the 87-year-old Hockney draws and paints on an iPad as though working on a sketching block. Far from a limitation, it seems to have unleashed ever more ambitious endeavours. In 2019, fascinated by the ways narrative unfolds sequentially in the Bayeux Tapestry, he drew scenes of his house and studio in the Normandy countryside in the seasonal hues of spring and fall. Each is inkjet printed on a 40-foot long band of paper.

More than a dozen of his 2021 floral iPad paintings, all hung on a Wedgewood blue wall, prove the variety Hockney can achieve. There is a double self-portrait of the artist himself, seated in two different wicker chairs, looking at these works in his studio. Taking the cue, the museum used lovely coloured walls throughout the show to compliment the works on paper.

The Hockney show originated at the Honolulu Art Museum but was expanded by the Palm Springs curator Christine Vendredi and director Adam Lerner to include earlier, more sexually provocative work for the museum’s new Q+ initiative highlighting work by artists who identify as LBGTQ+. Schnitzer says, “This is an exceptional exhibition, not only for the community here but for any of us dealing with how we evolved.”

Lithographs from Hockney’s 1966 response to the poems of C.P.Cavafy include a delicate rendering of a pair of naked men in bed. Gay friends are featured throughout the show including a print of L.A. icons author Christopher Isherwood and artist Don Bachardy — also one of Hockney’s most renowned paintings — and the prominent art dealer Nick Wilder. There are prints devoted to lovers and partners throughout the years.

The variety and depth of the show is a tribute to Schnitzer. It is rare collector who enables shows that provoke fresh understanding of artists in all of their phases of development.

'There is so much negative discussion about artificial intelligence,' he notes. 'But look at David Hockney when Xerox machines first came out. Look at what he did. Then polaroids and then, in 2004, when the Ipads came out, oh my God, it’s like the horses left the barn! He was able to take that technology and create some of the prettiest things ever made. It’s a joyful exhibition at a time when we all need a little joy in our lives.'

'Perspective Should Be Reversed: Prints by David Hockney from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation' is at Palm Springs Art Museum until March 31, 2025

psmuseum.org

Mary McCartney unites home cooked favourites with beautiful photography in her latest cookbook published by Taschen: ‘Feeding Creativity’.

Every home cook has a culinary bible- a tomato splattered, dog-eared archive of recipes that are a failsafe favourite for even the pickiest eater around the table. Branching into the peak of autumn Mary McCartney delivers just that, a 60-page collection of warming recipes each selected and made with the planet in mind.

Mary McCartney: Feeding Creativity

Based on her motto ‘cook, meet, picture, eat’, McCartney combined her favourite passions; photography, food, and friends, to produce a unique cookbook that takes us into the homes of the many recognised faces of musicians, actors, and artists. Over each prepared and selected recipe, she shares her photographs and anecdotes from these culinary encounters.

These recipes are not just for fanciful dinner parties, but vary from breakfast sheet-pan pancakes with Cameron Diaz to a fruity shortcut apple tart with Dame Judi Dench. She prepares an onion, pea, and spinach tart for lunch at David Hockney's LA studio and speaks with Haim over globe artichokes with tarragon dijon dressing. Tucking into a roasted and toasted salad, she meets Nile Rodgers at Abbey Road Studios, and makes a mushroom polenta, Cavolo Nero, for Stanley Tucci in his London home.

Coming from such a creative star-studded family, of course the book is nothing less than an artistically crafted centrepiece, and could look just as beautiful on a coffee table, as well as in your kitchen. Subtle illustrations in similar pink and red tones are playfully printed on each page, with McCartney’s hand scribbled notes in the margins adding to the homely feel. The layout is reminiscent of a high fashion magazine, adding to the fun dip-in-and-out passages that make for an easy kitchen read.

‘I decided to cook for each creative person I visited and see where the journey took me. Now I am happy to share that adventure with you.’ She says. The mix of comforting classics with creative storytelling is a friendly toast to easy plant-based cooking.

taschen.com

Virtual Reality. NFTs. Artificial Intelligence. Robotics. Contemporary art seems saturated with technology right now, with creatives seemingly fighting one another to incorporate new technological developments within ever-more spectacular projects. 

Though it may seem like a new scientific goldrush, it is nothing new. From the Baroque onwards, artists have incorporated contemporary thinking and techniques within their work, while 20th-century art can be directly mapped onto scientific progression – from futurism through cybernetics and into new media.

Such work has always sat alongside, rather than in competition with, traditional sculptural and painterly techniques, with many artists taking pleasure in fusing traditional with technological and analogue with digital. 

David Hockney is a case in point. Celebrated for a career of pop-infused painting, he has never shied away from technological experimentation, including photomontage, multi-camera video, and more recent forays into iPad drawing. Recognising the historic precedents of such practices, he also researched historic uses of the camera obscura by Old Masters, explored not only in a book and documentary but also through his own visual experimentation with perspective and how the eye reads information.

Such research is presented across the opening chapters of ‘David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)’, the first presentation at Lightroom, London’s newest entertainment space, a four-storey cube-like room with HD projection mapping across four walls and the floor. For just under an hour, visitors are immersed in a whistlestop journey through Hockney’s practice set to a voiceover montaged from new and archive interviews with the artist. It is at once documentary, visual installation, and technological spectacle, but – cliché incoming – is it art?

Hockney is not the only artist who has had such an immersive experience forged around their output: there are currently two separate Monet experiences touring the US; van Gogh is getting the treatment simultaneously across three continents; Frida Kahlo and Diego Riviera are in Washington DC after their London run; and ‘Dalí: Cybernetics’ can be experienced in both Barcelona and London. Hockney is distinct from this stellar line-up. Not only is he the only living artist among them, but he was deeply involved in the show’s creation and design. Consequently, ‘Bigger & Closer’ might be considered not only as a presentation of his work, but perhaps as one of his works in and of itself.

The benefits of such projects to their producers is clear: the ability to exhibit concurrently in countless locations; the possibility to engage with a broad audience who may not consider an art museum, or who simply don’t want to fight blockbuster exhibition crowds to see work up close; and at £25 a pop with visitors unlikely to stay longer than one loop of a pre-recorded show, it can presumably provide a good financial return. But, what does a living artist gain from such a packaged presentation?

Over three years, Hockney collaborated with designers 59 Productions on preparatory ideas from his home in Normandy, then refined the production in model-box form, before coming to London and overseeing the final touches in the Haworth Tompkins-designed venue. Where an artist’s work is normally diffused through a curatorial framing, at institutional arm’s-length from the creator, ‘Bigger & Closer’ is far more hagiographic in approach than any traditional solo exhibition, and presented at such a breakneck pace that there is no time to dwell in or deeply consider the works as one may in a gallery setting.

While the technology of such immersive presentations may be cutting-edge, the creative desire to create all-encompassing environments is not new. Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms, still showing at Tate Modern, are a global crowdpleaser, while a forthcoming exhibition at Munich’s Haus der Kunst, ‘Inside Other Spaces’, is set to explore midcentury immersive environments by women artists including Judy Chicago, Aleksandra Kašuba, and Marta Minujín.

Technology progresses relentlessly, not only with Lightroom but in other spaces such as the ABBA Arena, the planned global network of Outernets, and the imminent U2 residency opening at Las Vegas’ MSG Sphere. But it can seem that the more technology is built into such spaces, the more a division between commercial and fine arts, and their different modes of show and experience becomes apparent. That division is somewhat artificial, often reinforced by the arts industry to create an aura, but there surely can be more nuanced play between the division than the flood of immersive experiences which struggle to pull off the emotion, presence, and power of all the artists they create environments from.

It may be that such technologies need time to bed in, for artists to slowly absorb them and play with nuances of design and science, to test possibilities beyond big-bang spectacle. There is no shortage of contemporary artists engaged with technology who could play with such venues in phenomenally creative and progressive ways. If Lightroom or an MSG Sphere were given over to Anicka Yi’s algorithmic machines, Ian Cheng’s evolving AI narratives, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’s lo-fi digital support of Black trans life, or the studies of race and science by David Blandy and Larry Achiampong, then there may be genuinely exciting shifts not only in how something is presented, but in how such presentations can develop critical and profound ideas.

Such artists – and many more interested in pushing experiential and political boundaries – could easily still create accessible and immersive works that could pull in a crowd, perhaps with less commercial profit but with more artistic ambition. 

'David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)' runs until 1 October 2023 at Lightroom, London. lightroom.uk

David Hockney has unveiled an ambitious, immersive art show in London, transforming his iconic paintings, rarely seen pieces and some newly created work into a multisensorial experience.

Three years in the making, ‘David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)’ is the launch show at Lightroom in King’s Cross, London. The four storey-high space, designed by London architects Haworth Tompkins, is a joint venture between design studio 59 Productions and the London Theatre Company. 

The six-chapter, 50-minute show features a dedicated score by American composer Nico Muhly, and commentary narrated by Hockney himself, in which he reveals his artistic process. ‘It can plunge the audience right into the way he looks at the world, and the way he understands art,’ explained the show’s executive producer, Nicholas Hytner, in an interview with BBC Radio 4. ‘There’s an absolutely amazing sequence where we watch him create one of his iPad pictures of his house and gardens in Normandy, almost as if you’re watching him paint in real time.’

Other chapters of the show are dedicated to LA, California’s San Gabriel Mountains (which inspired the artist to create a 90-minute Wagner soundtrack back in 1990), Yorkshire, and an opera house where the audience will encounter animated recreations of Hockney’s stage designs.

‘We watch [Hockney] experimenting with perspective, using photography as a way of “drawing with a camera”, capturing the passing of time in his Polaroid collages and the joy of spring on his iPad, and showing us why only paint can properly convey the hugeness of the Grand Canyon,’ states the show description.

‘Bigger & Closer’ will demonstrate how Hockney, now well into his ninth decade, continues to embrace new media, following his experiments with photography, video and the iPad. ‘I was looking for this, really, for a long time,’ he said on BBC Radio 4. 

‘We’ll have those nine big camera works of spring, summer, autumn and winter on the walls, but you’ll be looking up, [it’s] amazing to be really looking up at them. The audience will feel on it, they will feel in the forest, they will feel on the cliff. It’s changing everything.’

Asked about inevitable comparisons to the slate of immersive exhibitions (notably reinterpreting the work of Van Gogh and Monet) that have cropped up in recent years, Hockney is unfazed. 

‘They are just using Van Gogh and Monet, and they’re dead. They can’t add anything to it,’ he quips. ‘Well, I’m still alive, so I can make things work better.’

‘David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)’, until 1 October 2023, Lightroom, 12 Lewis Cubitt Square, London N1, lightroom.uk; hockney.com

While a handful of Manhattan galleries have flocked south where Tribeca is emerging as a new cultural destination, it’s the international blue-chips who are banking on Chelsea’s staying power. The recent opening of Pace Gallery’s 75,000 sq ft headquarters, designed by Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture, cements the powerhouse’s presence in the city’s longstanding art hub with a multi-functional complex that disrupts the contemporary gallery model.

Boasting 16,500 sq ft of exhibition space across eight floors, the 25th Street building greets visitors with a gallery and a light-filled public research library on the ground floor. A sixth floor terrace offers panoramic views of the nearby Hudson River, with a 4,800 sq ft outdoor space protected by a multipurpose top floor reserved for performances, screenings and large-scale installations, such as Fred Wilson’s display of five Ottoman Era-inspired Murano glass chandeliers.

The collaboration between the gallery and Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture manifested as an organic process of experimentation from the project’s initiation in 2014, ranging from techniques used for exteriors to different floor materials, such as bleached oak or cement, to accommodate various artistic mediums and colours on the walls. For its first art gallery project, the New York firm blended tradition with ‘a modern silhouette’ to design a building that pays homage to Pace’s five-decade history of fostering cutting-edge artists.

Enrico Bonetti explained to Wallpaper* that the team initially planned to use concrete for the façade. However, the challenge to find good-quality concrete in the US and its impact on construction speed led to the discovery of two alternative materials. Volcanic stone quarried from Sicily’s Mount Etna – a resistant material with glossy surface – was used for the first time in New York, while aluminium foam covers three other exteriors and provides a sculptural coating with its dramatic punctured surface. Inside, a lighting system built in collaboration with Arnold Chan from London-based Isometrix Lighting Design is smoothly tuned to artists’ various preferences. ‘Our research showed most European artists prefer ambient lights while American artists use slightly warmer spotlights,’ said Dominic Kozerski.

The building’s inaugural exhibition programme reflects the diversity of the gallery’s roster. In addition to 10,000 volumes and Pace archives, the research library is reserved for smaller exhibitions, starting with Moroccan artist Yto Barrada’s abstract wallpaper and works on paper inspired by architect Luis Barragán’s books at his Mexico City home. The ground floor gallery does justice to Alexander Calder’s mobile sculptures and traces the series’ evolution from 1920s through the 1960s.

Young painter Loie Hollowell makes her Pace debut on the second floor with mesmerising abstract paintings with three-dimensional touches and bold colour palettes. Third floor hosts another master, David Hockney, whose new 24-panel drawing, La Grande Cour, seamlessly stretches over two walls to orchestrate a vista of Normandy. Third floor exhibits late American photographer Peter Hujar’s intimate black and white pictures of friends and nature. Finally, the fourth and fifth floors are reserved for offices, showrooms, and private gatherings.

INFORMATION

pacegallery.com

ADDRESS

Pace Gallery
540 W 25th Street
New York

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

‘Teller of stories’ Studio Aisslinger has lent its graphic design-eye to Kantini, a new concept eatery in Berlin.

Headed up by local designer Werner Aisslinger (who once told me that he ‘tends to jump into new projects, whatever they are, head first’), the project is a mindbending mesh of foliage, furniture and frappuccinos. 

‘Our studio has created a new typology of food market with design-forward stalls and an atmospheric experience that diners are bound to remember, and share online,’ he says. Creating Instagrammable restaurants, like Sketch in London and Odette in Singapore, is a trend that has spread globally over the last half decade, where the interiors aim to become social media-fodder as much as the food.

Few strike the balance between social dynamite and design prowess as successfully as Kantini, however. Housed in the already photogenic concept shopping mall Bikini, (where Aisslinger also designed the 25hours Hotel) nature meets culture meets cookery in perfect harmony. Sofas are arranged in a ‘landscape’; 13 modular kitchens become stages for culinary performance art, and a vast, caged seating area echoes the aviary next door.

Before the witty interiors edge into the wrong side of ‘gimmicky’, Aisslinger draws one’s lens to the high quality furnishings on display, all custom made in house. Highlights include the ‘Token’ stool (for Moroso), ‘Hobo’ lamp (for Wästberg), and the ‘Tree’ lamp light installation.

Inspiration comes from ‘David Hockney’s pictoral world’ and the ‘flora of LA’, and will no doubt have your Insta-feed prickling with cacti, colour and characterful clutter. It’s almost easy to forget the reason you popped in – lunch.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Studio Aisslinger website

ADDRESS

Bikini
Budapester Str. 38-50
10787 Berlin, Germany

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

What would a Miss Lesbian beauty queen look like? How are spaces for gay people in Britain evolving? How has the internet changed sex? How do the press treat the sexuality of celebrities? How does your gender shape your experience of the world?

The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool has spent two years researching British LGBT history since 1967 – the year of the Sexual Offences Act that decriminalised homosexual acts in England and Wales – and has found many answers to these questions through more than 100 artworks, from films by Steve McQueen and Issac Julien and photographs by Wolfgang Tillmans, Sarah Lucas and Zanele Muholi, Hadrian Pigott’s soap sculptures – and even tarot card reading courtesy of John Walters.

1967 was also the year David Hockney’s iconic painting, Peter Getting out of Nick’s Pool, was awarded the John Moores Painting Prize (the work is on show at the Walker). Yet many of the other artists and the meanings of their works (like Hockney’s, his relationship to his subject not being explicitly identified at the time) in this exhibition have been overlooked, and the research reveals huge gaps in what institutes and museums have been presenting and what artists have been making over the past four decades.

‘Coming Out: Sexuality, Gender and Identity’ is a landmark exhibition in terms of depth and breadth on LGBT contemporary art, drawn from the Walker’s own collection and the Arts Council Collection. It includes diverse artists, eschewing a single narrative on LGBT experience, but united in exploring non-cis gender and sexuality, and viewing art being one of the few places where all kinds of ideas and free expression can safely exist.

Ultimately, of course, this exhibition does not only address LGBT people, but insists on the relevance of these kinds of questions in the art world, and as part of a successful society. ‘The exhibition also forms part of an even greater ambition for us,’ says curator Charlotte Keenan, ‘to make queer British art and its importance to art history permanently visible within our galleries.’ Significantly, one of the galleries has been left empty, ready to be filled in with the future.

INFORMATION

‘Coming Out: Sexuality, Gender and Identity’ is on view until 5 November. For more information, visit the Walker Art Gallery website

ADDRESS

Walker Art Gallery
William Brown Street
Liverpool L3 8EN

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

After 45 years of showing modern and contemporary art at their gallery near Union Square, now San Francisco’s hub of fine hotels and high-end retail, John and Gretchen Berggruen considered closing the doors permanently to pursue private sales. Skyrocketing rents in the area had driven out many of their established colleagues and they too were feeling the pressure, too. They could retire and still take credit for building the reputations of Bay Area artists such as Wayne Thiebaud and Richard Diebenkorn. In their small but wealthy community, they had cultivated a dedicated group of collectors. 

But in February last year, a tantalising opportunity presented itself: a 1908 brick building in the historic district close to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which was recently expanded by Snøhetta and is now the second largest art museum in the US. Once a restaurant, the structure was also adjacent to the brick building owned by Crown Point Press, in which Larry Gagosian opened a gallery in spring 2016. The remarkable location alone seemed a sign to carry on. 

Gretchen’s daughter Jennifer Weiss, an architect based in San Francisco, took on the substantial renovation of the two-storey, 10,000 sq ft building. The structure is situated in a historic preservation zone, so the challenges were considerable and time consuming, from installing white sheetrock over red-brick interior walls to constructing a glass staircase that connects the subterranean galleries and storage with the central gallery and top-floor offices. 

‘I thought, what a wonderful project. Boy, was I a fool,’ says John, 73, good-naturedly. Gretchen, 71, agrees: ‘It was more demanding than we expected.’ Their new gallery finally opened in January with an exhibition titled ‘The Human Form’ (the pair have long championed the figurative tradition), with paintings by artists including Pablo Picasso and George Condo. 

Their wide-ranging passions and curatorial smarts are also on view at their home in the historic district of Russian Hill. One of few residences to survive the 1906 earthquake, the 1854 shingle-covered house has stunning views of the bay and downtown. In 1998, it was restored and renovated by architect Robert AM Stern, who described it as ‘one of the oldest houses on one of the highest points in the city’. 

The walls of each room display the Berggruens’ own significant collection. The top-floor living space is anchored by a 1968 David Hockney painting of a window looking out over sailing boats – it’s a good match for their own windows and vista. On the opposite wall is Ed Ruscha’s 1972 word painting Faith, while the dining room features large works by Diebenkorn and Helen Frankenthaler. Modern furnishings are mixed with sleek antiques. The late Randolph Arcinsky, of furniture company Randolph & Hein, assisted with the decor and John purchased many of the art deco and Biedermeier pieces to be incorporated into the design. It is not a showroom, but a place where people are welcomed and entertained.

Gretchen says one motivating factor for continuing to operate a gallery was going through their own archives, to compile the 2015 exhibition and catalogue ‘Looking Back: 45 Years’. This reminded the Berggruens that, in addition to many artists from the Bay Area, they had given the first West Coast show to American modernist Georgia O’Keeffe and regularly presented Los Angeles artists such as Ruscha. To stage the ‘Looking Back’ exhibition, they borrowed some 40 pieces from collections they had helped to build. ‘It’s the creative part of the work,’ says Gretchen.

Seeing what they had accomplished re-energised them. ‘It gave me the sense that there was so much more that could come to a city like this. If we want to stay viable, we need to keep our programme as vibrant as it has been in the past,’ Gretchen adds.

With cash-rich tech titans and venture capitalists now abundant in the Bay Area and throughout northern California, the pair find themselves working with younger generations of aspiring collectors. The Berggruens, both charming and erudite, hope to continue educating and placing artists’ work with these freshly curious entrepreneurs and professionals.

Yet the very factors that have created a new collecting class are also driving out the creative class, the artists who once lived comfortably in the Bay Area. The Berggruens now look to the East Coast and elsewhere for their new artists. To carry on in this environment, they have reached out to those who have not had much exposure in the Bay Area, such as internationally recognised New York-based artist Spencer Finch. ‘We love the interchange between artists and collectors,’ says Gretchen. ‘And galleries in Europe are great as collaborators,’ adds John. 

John comes from solid art-professional stock. During the Second World War, his German father, Heinz, lived in San Francisco and was a curator at the Museum of Modern Art. When John was two, his parents divorced (his mother was Lillian Zellerbach, of a prominent San Francisco family) and Heinz moved back to Europe. A brief affair with Frida Kahlo contributed to the break-up.

John remained in the US while, across the Atlantic, his father continued to build a respected collection of modern art, including serious holdings of work by Paul Klee. Last autumn, the majority of Heinz’s donation of 90 works by Klee was shown at the Met Breuer museum in New York, and other collections are housed in the Museum Berggruen in Berlin. John believes his passion for art comes from ‘genetic transference’ rather than environmental influence; his half-brothers are art historian and curator Olivier Berggruen and billionaire collector and philanthropist Nicolas Berggruen.

John opened his gallery in 1970. In 1978, Gretchen started working with him, having been involved in public art projects. John credits her with much of their success. ‘It was a galactic shift,’ he says. ‘She brought sensitivity as well as structure to the business.’ Nine years later, they were married. John, never missing the opportunity for a joke, says, ‘She wanted a raise. I told her I have another idea.’ And now the genetic transference continues: their son, Alex, works in contemporary art at Christie’s in New York. 

Now that the new gallery is open, John can put all the irritation over delays and expenses behind him. It is time to move forward. With the animated expression of a young boy, he exclaims, ‘It is exciting for us.’

As originally featured in the April 2017 issue of Wallpaper (W*217)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Berggruen Gallery website

'This is paint, not politics,' French street artist Zevs (pronounced Zeus) insists of his new exhibition at Lazarides Gallery in London. Based on oil spills, it's difficult to believe there's no critical, activist edge to the show, especially when considering the artist's career to date. He's famous (and infamous) for his signature 'liquidation' street-art, where familiar logos (Chanel, Coca-Cola, Louis Vuitton, Google) are distorted by drips of paint. Here, Zevs integrates this technique for the first time into a larger mise en scène – a re-creation of David Hockney's iconic A Bigger Splash (1967). In Zevs' updated version, oil company logos are blazoned to the wall of the modernist building, melting realisitically down into the pool, where they create rainbow sheens of pollution.

Other than the play on words the title of Hockney's piece affords (Zevs' show is called 'The Big Oil Splash'), he chose this work simply 'because I like Hockney, of course'.

'This exhibition is not intended to be a negation of his work, but I've never gone so far as to name it an "homage", either. Hockney is one of those painters I've appreciated from a very young age, and I fell on this particular work naturally.' The year the original was painted also happens to be the year of the Torrey Canyon oil spill – one of the most damaging examples in history.

As well as looking backwards, Zevs is looking forwards with this exhibition, which marks a new and developing phase in his artistic practice. After ten years of focusing on his divisive liquidation works, in 2014, Zevs felt a desire to reconnect with the 'technicalities of painting', which he realises here with poise – up close the paintings are richly coloured and engaging. When creating the 'Hockney-ed' background (each painting is 1.5 sq m, loyal to the large dimensions of the original), he worked in vertical, with the painting hanging from the wall. 'I was so careful and delicate that I probably took longer than Hockney to paint this bit,' Zevs jokes. When creating the oil effect, he turned the work horizontally, allowing the paint to move and spread naturally, like oil in water, with the intention of creating 'a sharp contrast between the clean-lines of the original and my fluid, organic additions'.

The Hockney-inspired works make up the first room in Lazarides, and can be imposingly seen from the street. The second phase of the exhibition diverts into the windowless back room, in what Zevs describes in a thick French accent, as 'l'environnement'. On entry, guests are given a rather fetching pair of magenta UV-protective sunglasses. Inside, a series of brightly coloured monochrome paintings 'inspired by Yves Klein's empty blue works' surround, of all things, a sunbed. Viewers insert metal disks into the tanning machine, and when it whirs to life, so do the paintings, which are composed in a special, UV-sensitive paint. Hidden images of American Dream scenes (yachts, beaches, galloping horses), literally appear out of the blue, only to disappear when the sunbed clicks off.

This sense of a vanishing Americana unites the show – palm trees stand wonky in sand composites dotted around a Jacuzzi filled with oil (an intimidating centrepiece that the artist whimsically conjured up just a week before the show opened). All of these aspects, along with the arresting message of the Hockney works, tell the story of an American-dream that's half asleep – tarred, in this particular instance, by Total, Shell and Conaco.

INFORMATION

’Zevs: The Big Oil Splash’ is on view until 1 September. For more information, visit the Lazarides Gallery website

Photography courtesy the artist and Lazarides Rathbone

ADDRESS

Lazarides
11 Rathbone Place
London, W1T 1HR

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

With the success of his 2012 landscape exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts still looming large, David Hockney returns once more to the RA. This time, he's occupying the Sackler Wing, with an intimate exhibition of recent portraits.

Painted over the last two and a half years in Hockney’s studio in Los Angeles, the exhibition is a window into his life in the City of Angels, with the subject of each portrait personally invited by the artist to sit for him. They range from friends and family to acquaintances and staff, and include recognisable figures such as Larry Gagosian, Jacob Rothschild, Frank Gehry and Celia Birtwell, as well as Hockney’s siblings.

Though the number of portraits is expansive, each has been created with a sense of uniformity; all are painted on the same size canvas within three days, and depict its subject seated in the same chair against a bright blue background. In doing so, Hockney aims to place emphasis on the personalities of his subjects, as well as his own development in the medium of acrylic paint. To highlight this progression, the works are hung chronologically throughout the galleries. The exhibition is curated through a close collaboration between Edith Devaney, curator of contemporary projects at the RA, and Hockney himself.

In addition to the portraits showcased, the RA will also release an illustrated book containing interviews with the artist, photographs of several of the paintings in the process of being completed, and an exploration of Hockney’s portraiture by Tim Barringer, Paul Mellon professor of the history of art at Yale University.

INFORMATION

’David Hockney: 82 Portraits and 1 Still-life’ is on view until 2 October. For more information, visit the RA’s website

ADDRESS

The Sackler Wing
Royal Academy of Arts
Burlington House
Piccadilly
London, W1J 0BD

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

David Hockney has done it again. Until 18 June, Pace Gallery in New York is showing ‘The Yosemite Suite’, a collection of the artist’s iPad drawings. Hockney visited Yosemite National Park in 2010 and 2011; as part of his continued interest and engagement with landscape, the artist has produced these works as a way of embracing new means of creation.

‘David has always been interested in the latest technologies. When the fax was new, he was faxing us all drawings. When the iPad was new, those of us who are privileged to be his friends were sent images from his iPad,’ says Douglas Baxter, the director of the show. And so the size of an iPad further facilitated a new way of working – immediate and even impromptu.

Hockney knew that these drawings could be produced as large prints and so calibrated each gesture and colour accordingly – transposing the scale from screen to print. In fact, this Yosemite series follows a previous set of iPad works done in his native East Yorkshire, where he captured seasonal changes. Pace showed these in 2014, as ‘The Arrival of Spring’.

‘David is an extremely visual person, who fell in love with the landscape of East Yorkshire during summers as a youth. Similarly, when he moved to Los Angeles he fell in love with the landscape of the American West,’ continues Baxter. 

Hockney now lives and works in Los Angeles. This is his fifth exhibition at Pace since 2009. 

INFORMATION

’The Yosemite Suite’ is on view until 18 June. For more details, please visit the Pace Gallery’s website

Images courtesy of the artist and Pace Gallery

ADDRESS

Pace Gallery
537 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10001

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

David Hockney has long cut a broad swathe through the art world. After all, he’s turned to paintings, photography and even Polaroids along with recently using the iPhone and iPad for his creative endeavors.

Set to heighten his visibility yet further, the New York art dealer Paul Kasmin is debuting ‘David Hockney: Early Drawings’ at his eponymous gallery in Chelsea.  On view are 58 drawings and 16 etchings, beginning with artist’s earliest work dating from 1962 following a stint at the Royal College of Art, through the 70s. Staged in collaboration with the London dealer Offer Waterman, this show is a must as a many of the works are from private collectors, and it also includes number of archival photographs.

‘I can't remember a time I did not love David's drawings,’ says Paul Kasmin, who literally grew up surrounded by Hockney’s work as his father John Kasmin served as the artist’s first dealer.

Hockney’s celebrated muse and fashion designer Celia Birtwell, who helped usher in the Swinging Sixties, is portrayed in no less than three drawings, all with a surprising economy of line. Also on view are sketches of the late Metropolitan Museum curator Henry Geldzaher, whose exhibition ‘New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970’ made headlines as the museum’s first American contemporary art show. Sketches of Hockney’s friends, a slew of still-lifes and his early iconic pool sketches get a good airing too.

With Hockney’s oils now fetching millions, this is a rare opportunity to garner a glimpse into his initial efforts on paper.

INFORMATION

‘David Hockney: Early Drawings’ is on view until 1 December

Photography: Dan Bradica. Courtesy of Paul Kasmin Gallery

ADDRESS

Paul Kasmin Gallery
297 Tenth Avenue
New York

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

There is no doubt about the influence and extent to which technology has changed our experience; our world even. But has it been for the better or worse? And what are the implications for artist and their craft? These are the questions Liberatum - the global multidisciplinary cultural and multimedia organisation - poses in its latest video, Artistry / Technology.

Liberatum founder and co-director Pablo Ganguli comments, ‘Great developments have occurred thanks to technological advancement but it is also ruining our sleep at night, [these] devices we can't leave behind and bring to bed with us. Creative people are increasingly using technology to produce their art but can they still excel without it or are they completely attached and dependent on it?’

Some of the greatest creative minds of our time - among them Ed Ruscha, David Hockney, Frank Gehry, Francis Ford Coppola, Marc Quinn, Miranda July, Marcel Wanders and Kehinde Wiley – analyse their personal paths and relationships with technology in the film.

‘I got an iPhone and then I found you could draw on it,’ begins David Hockney. ‘I made about two hundred drawings on the phone and then I read about the iPad. So I thought the moment the iPad is out I will get that because drawing on a bigger thing would be better.’

Francis Ford Coppola points out that advents in technology have allowed for art, ‘There could be no cinema without recorded images, moving images, recorded sound and as the technology changed, as different elements were added to it such as colour, talking capability then the cinema evolved.’

However, not all are quite so positive in their outlook: ‘You go out to dinner and people are just on their phones and no one is talking to each other,' says actress Susan Sarandon. 'Everyone is walking down the street and not paying attention to what’s going on or constantly taking pictures of their food and their lives and not in their food or their lives.'

Whether you believe in the power of communication or the ability to share a common experience with many rather than a few, the documentary – presented by Swire Properties – illustrates the stark contrast between the rival camps. As Ganguli told Wallpaper*, 'Technology is not the only answer. It is a tool that can be a gift for us to use for our craftsmanship and creativity but it is not the main ingredient. The human touch and physical artistic connection is far more crucial.  Technology can never replace an idea or poetry that has the power to move us to tears.'