The art world lost one of its brightest voices this week with the passing of British artist David Hockney, who died peacefully at home on June 11, 2026 at the age of 88.
Over a career spanning more than seven decades, Hockney transformed the everyday into something extraordinary. From his iconic California swimming poolsand intimate portraits to his vibrant Yorkshire landscapes and groundbreaking iPad drawings, his work celebrated the joy of looking closely at the world around us.
French designer Mathieu Lehanneur has long blurred the line between art, science, and nature — and his sculptural pendant lamp Guernica is no exception. Inspired by the organic beauty of a flower, Lehanneur began by 3D-scanning an iris blossom, digitally manipulating its form, and then realizing the piece in ceramic. The result is a luminous object that appears to bloom midair, its soft, petal-like curves both delicate and defiant. Continue reading Eye On Design: Guernica Pendent Lamp by Mathieu Lehanneur→
Located near the Champs–Élysées, the city’s fame tree-lined avenue, Jardin de Paris (1901) was the summer location of the historic dance hall Le Moulin Rouge. A young Pablo Picasso pursued commercial work to sustain a living and produced this design as a speculative bid. The venue’s Catalan manager, Josep Oller, however, did not purchase it. Both the imagery and the style recall that of the iconic Montmartre artist of the 1890s, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, whose work Picasso emulated. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Pablo Picasso, Jardin de Paris→
In Montez Singing (1989), the cartoonish eyes and meandering nose from Picasso’s Straw Hat with Blue Leaves (1936), along with a pair of stylized lips, attach themselves to the edges of the painting, so that it becomes a face peering in on itself. At the right of the canvas, mitered corners suggest a frame that dissolves on the left, while wispy strokes at the sides might read as hair and the circles below as breasts.
The British textile and fashion designer Celia Birtwell has been a close friend and confidant of David Hockney‘s since the 1960s. Sharing northern roots and a similar sense of humor, the two found that they had much in common from their first meeting, and together they were at the heart of Bohemian London. Hockney has always been fascinated by the changing nature of Celia’s face and she remains, to this day, one of his favorite models.
