Peroxide mop, statement specs, tweed suits and quirky crocs: David Hockney’s genius for fashion

David Hockney, the renowned British artist, is celebrated for his distinctive personal style, which has evolved from his teenage self-portrait in a blue coat and red scarf to his trademark peroxide hair, round spectacles, rugby shirts, tweed suits, and quirky accessories like yellow Crocs worn to meet King Charles in 2022. The article traces his fashion journey through decades, noting how his unstudied, colorful ensembles—often documented in his own self-portraits—have made him a style icon, inspiring designers such as Christopher Bailey at Burberry and Paul Smith.

David Hockney, an artist of brio and versatility, with global recognition beyond the art world, has died, aged 88

David Hockney, the celebrated British artist known for his vibrant paintings, prints, and set designs, has died at home at the age of 88. Born in Bradford in 1937, he rose to fame as a key figure in British Pop Art after studying at the Royal College of Art, and his career spanned over six decades, encompassing works that ranged from intimate portraits to large-scale landscapes, often incorporating innovative techniques like iPad drawing.

David Hockney – a life in pictures

David Hockney, the celebrated British artist known for iconic works such as *A Bigger Splash* and his vibrant landscapes, has died at the age of 88. The Guardian marks his passing with a photo essay tracing his life from his early days in Bradford to international fame, featuring images of his studio work, exhibitions at the Pompidou Centre and the Royal Academy, and his later years painting nature on vast canvases.

‘David Hockney caught the look of the modern world’: a tribute to the artist whose work was a feast of visual pleasure

The Guardian publishes a tribute to David Hockney, celebrating his lifelong career as an artist who captured the look and feel of the modern world with unabashed visual pleasure. The article traces his journey from a childhood in Bradford, through his student years at the Royal College of Art, to his embrace of Los Angeles as a vision of paradise. It highlights key works such as 'A Bigger Splash' and 'Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)', the latter selling for $90.3 million in 2018, and discusses his relaxed depiction of gay life, his role as both participant and observer in the new freedoms of the 1960s, and his enduring influence as the 'Matisse of pop art'.

French Scientists Have Developed a New Technology To Help Identify Forged Artworks

Scientists at the Polytechnic University of Hauts-de-France in Valenciennes have published a study in the June 2026 issue of *Surface Topography: Metrology and Properties* introducing a new method to authenticate artworks and identify forgeries. Led by Francois Berkmans, Ludovic Nys, and Maxence Bigerelle, the research uses surface metrology—analyzing the texture and topography of brushstrokes like a fingerprint—via high-resolution scans. They tested the technique on nine van Gogh paintings, correctly flagging a known fake as a "strong outlier" and confirming the authenticity of *Sunset at Montmajour*, which the Van Gogh Museum had already validated in 2013.

‘She slept in the hallway on a lawn chair’: how Bettina’s astonishing art outgrew her Chelsea Hotel room

The article profiles Bettina Grossman, known simply as Bettina, a reclusive artist who lived and worked in a small room at New York's Chelsea Hotel for decades. Her room was filled to the brim with Xeroxed word art, geometric sculptures, photographs, and collections of leaves, reflecting 40 years of fervent creative output. Artist Yto Barrada, who edited a book about Bettina, describes the overwhelming accumulation of works that forced Bettina to sleep on a lawn chair in the hallway. Bettina's work, including sculptures, photographs, and films, is now featured in an exhibition called 'Bettina: Finite Structures' as part of the Glasgow International festival, showcasing pieces like a newly digitized 8mm animation and distorted photographic reflections of skyscrapers.

Scientists Think They’ve Found a New Way to Spot Fake Van Goghs

Researchers from the University Polytechnique Hauts-de-France have published the most comprehensive study yet testing whether surface metrology—a technique that analyzes an artwork's texture—can authenticate paintings like fingerprints. By converting high-resolution images of eight Vincent van Gogh works into topographical maps and calculating fractal dimension values, the team established a baseline for the artist's brushstroke complexity. They then tested two previously contested paintings: Sunset at Montmajour (1888), validated by the Van Gogh Museum in 2013, proved consistent with van Gogh's fractal values, while the forgery The Plowmen did not. The study appears in Surface Topography: Metrology and Properties.

The Phillips Collection receives largest gift in museum’s history

The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, has received a $15 million gift from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation, the largest single donation in the museum's history. The funds will be allocated primarily to the museum's endowment ($12 million) for long-term maintenance, conservation staffing, and digital systems, with additional support for the museum's satellite space Phillips@THEARC and a new annual initiative called Art-Play-Practice. The inaugural installation will reference Sam Gilliam's 1972 work 'Broad Cape.' Director Jonathan P. Binstock, who joined in 2023, has led a strategic planning process that identified infrastructure and staffing needs as critical priorities.

Museum Rietberg’s A Kind of Paradise: Colonial-Era Photography in Contemporary Art is Balm for the Scars of European Conquest

A new group exhibition titled *A Kind of Paradise: Colonial-Era Photography in Contemporary Art* has opened at Museum Rietberg in Zurich, featuring twenty artists from the diasporas of Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Oceania. The show examines how colonial-era photography was used as a tool of mythmaking and objectification, and presents contemporary artworks that reinterpret, critique, and heal the scars left by these historical images. The exhibition is organized into four thematic sections—'Shapeshifters,' 'Confrontation,' 'Care,' and 'In the Photo Fantastic'—each exploring different strategies for recovering silenced narratives and challenging dominant colonial perspectives.

London’s Gallery Scene Is Full of Contradictions. Its Art Is, Too.

London's gallery scene during the June 2026 London Gallery Weekend presented a stark contrast: while Cork Street saw abandoned storefronts from departed galleries like Tiwani and Stephen Friedman, and Pace Gallery downsized, new arrivals Sundaram Tagore and Lehmann Maupin celebrated openings alongside expanding midsize galleries Edel Assanti and Emalin. A total of 126 galleries participated from June 5–7. Notable exhibitions included Thomas Houseago's spiritual installation at Lévy Gorvy Dayan featuring antiquities and modern works, Oliver Beer's sound-vibration paintings at Thaddaeus Ropac, Anne Imhof's Berlin-coded sculptures at Sprüth Magers, and a performance art 'spiritual marriage' at Gallery Rosenfeld. The article highlights a renewed interest in spirituality and nostalgia across shows, with South Asian art becoming increasingly central to London's cultural identity.

John Claridge obituary

John Claridge, a celebrated advertising photographer known for his iconic campaigns for Rolls-Royce, Porsche, and Jack Daniels, has died at age 81. His career spanned decades and earned multiple awards, but he is most revered for his black-and-white photographs of London's East End in the 1960s and 1970s, collected in the 2016 monograph "East End." Claridge's work is held in major institutions including the V&A, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

What Is The Game of Exquisite Corpse, and Why Do Artists Still Play It?

The article explains the Surrealist game Exquisite Corpse (cadavre exquis), where participants collaboratively draw sections of a human body on folded paper without seeing each other's contributions, resulting in strange, hybrid figures. Originating in 1925 at Marcel Duhamel's Paris home, the game was developed by André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Prévert, and Yves Tanguy, taking its name from a phrase generated in an earlier writing game. The Surrealists used it to access automatism and the unconscious, fostering wild experimentation through low-stakes materials.

‘The people made me a star’: 100 years of Marilyn Monroe – in pictures

A new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London, titled 'Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait', explores the life, career, and legacy of Marilyn Monroe through portraits created by many of the greatest photographers and artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. The show runs until 6 September and features iconic images from her early modeling days as Norma Jeane to her final interviews and photographs in 1962, including works by Milton H. Greene, Eve Arnold, Cecil Beaton, Pauline Boty, and Andy Warhol.

Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter Talks About Making Music for Art Projects and Robot Life as Performance

Thomas Bangalter, one half of the iconic French electronic duo Daft Punk, has been expanding his creative practice into visual art and performance since the group's dissolution in 2021. He has composed music for ballets, collaborated with artist JR and choreographer Damien Jalet on the project Chiroptera, and released a new album, Mirage, made for a ballet with visual artist Kohei Nawa. Bangalter also contributed a sound work to JR's public art installation La Caverne du Pont Neuf in Paris, and will present an installation at Art Basel in Switzerland. He recently played a surprise DJ set at the closing of Centre Pompidou for renovations.

MoMA exhibition will examine Mondrian’s time in New York and love of boogie woogie music

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York will present "Mondrian Boogie Woogie" (March 21–July 31, 2027), an exhibition focusing on Piet Mondrian's final four years in New York and the influence of boogie woogie music on his late work. The show reunites Mondrian's last two paintings—Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942-43) from MoMA's collection and Victory Boogie Woogie (1942-44) from the Kunstmuseum Den Haag—for the first time in over thirty years, alongside 30 total works including pieces from a crate he brought to New York. A section will explore Café Society, New York's first interracial nightclub where Mondrian was a regular, and jazz pianist Jason Moran will contribute an original composition.

David Hockney, giant of British art, 1937-2026

David Hockney, the towering figure of British painting whose career spanned six decades, has died. The artist studied at the Royal College of Art in 1959 and soon moved to Los Angeles, where he created iconic works such as *A Bigger Splash* (1967) and *Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)* (1972), the latter becoming the most expensive artwork by a living artist sold at auction in 2018. Hockney continually embraced new technology, from photo collage in the 1980s to iPad paintings in the 2000s, and maintained a prolific output of over 400 solo shows worldwide.

Art Movements: Sam Gilliam Foundation Names Its First Director

The Sam Gilliam Foundation has appointed Dr. Steven Nelson as its inaugural executive director. Nelson, formerly of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, will oversee the foundation's mission to preserve Gilliam's legacy while supporting emerging artists and civic activism. Separately, Aperture will open its new permanent headquarters on New York's Upper West Side on September 18 with an inaugural exhibition titled "Aperture Loves New York." The article also reports that five artists—Diana Al-Hadid, Jordan Ann Craig, Lavar Munroe, Ronald Rael, and Kiyan Williams—received VIA Art Fund's spring 2026 Artistic Production Grants, and that the New Museum has partnered with Penske Media Corporation to launch an event called "Art Week NYC."

È morto Duane Michals, il fotografo che ha trasformato l’immagine in racconto

Duane Michals, the influential American photographer known for transforming photography into a narrative and poetic medium, died on June 9, 2026, at age 94 in New York. Born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, in 1932, Michals began his career as a freelance photographer for magazines like Esquire, Mademoiselle, and Vogue after a trip to the Soviet Union in 1958. He rejected the dominant photojournalistic tradition of the "decisive moment," instead developing sequenced images, double exposures, and handwritten texts that turned photographs into hybrid works of storytelling, philosophy, and autobiography. His work entered major collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and he participated in Documenta 6 in 1977. His archive is housed at the Carnegie Museum of Art.

A Basel without Art Basel?

"Ein Basel ohne Art Basel?"

The article reports on several art-world developments. The board of trustees of the KHM Museum Association in Vienna has reaffirmed its confidence in directors Jonathan Fine and Paul Frey after an independent investigation by labor law expert Sieglinde Gahleitner found that allegations of mobbing and bossing by Veronika Sandbichler were not substantiated, though communication deficiencies were noted. Separately, Luisa Taliento explores unusual Italian 'Casa-Musei' (house museums) as an alternative to overcrowded major museums, highlighting the Museo Casa Mollino in Turin, Casa Museo Lodovico Pogliaghi in Varese, and Casa Museo Remo Brindisi as total works of art. In architecture news, Hanno Rauterberg reflects on the renovation of Schloss Bellevue and the move of the German president to a new building by Sauerbruch Hutton, while critics Gesine Borcherdt and Tobias Timm offer opposing views on the exhibition 'Freiraum Kunst' at the palace. Finally, Claude Bühler investigates whether Basel is losing relevance as Art Basel expands into Paris, citing concerns from Basel gallerist Stefan von Bartha.

Beer With a Painter: Samia Halaby

Hyperallergic's "Beer With a Painter" series features Palestinian-American abstract painter Samia Halaby in her longtime Tribeca studio. Over sage tea, Halaby discusses her seven-decade career, her experimentation with color, and how she "accidentally stepped into abstraction." The article covers her early life—born in Jerusalem in 1936, displaced during the Nakba, and moving to the U.S. in 1951—as well as her Marxist philosophy, her activism for Palestinian rights, and the evolution of her work from geometric still lifes to kinetic digital paintings. It also notes that her first museum survey was held in 2024 at the Broad Art Museum, but Indiana University canceled its half of the show, which many view as suppression of Palestinian voices.

Nayland Blake Doesn’t Believe in Fixed Selves

Nayland Blake, a nonbinary and pansexual artist known for their cerebral, kinky, and humorous work, is featured in Hyperallergic’s 2026 Pride Month series. The interview covers their coming out, their artistic process of making work to understand identity, and their belief that identity is unfixed and continually remade. Blake discusses their early inspirations from theater and literature, and how they interrogate their own creations to explore who they are. They are a co-director of the Studio Art program at Bard College and have exhibited at major institutions including SFMOMA and the Whitney Museum.

Danielle Mckinney's Portraits of Black Women at Rest

Danielle Mckinney's exhibition "Forest for the Trees" at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea presents portraits of solitary Black women in states of leisure and repose, rendered in both watercolor and oil. The works feature recurring motifs like red nails, metallic eye accents, and cigarette smoke, creating intimate scenes of private domestic space. The exhibition coincides with a survey of Mckinney's work at the Norton Museum of Art, running through October 4.

Inside Chicago’s Obama Center

The article reports on the upcoming opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago's Jackson Park, a new $850 million campus designed to embody the legacy of Barack and Michelle Obama. It features artworks by Idris Khan, Maya Lin, and others, and is set to open to the public later this month. The piece also covers a planned nationwide strike by Italian cultural workers on June 12, demanding better working conditions and solidarity with Palestine, and notes controversial renderings of a Penn Station redesign that prominently display Trump's name.

The World That Held Peter Hujar and Paul Thek

Andrew Durbin's new dual biography, *The Wonderful World That Almost Was: A Life of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek* (2026), explores the intertwined lives of photographer Peter Hujar and visual artist Paul Thek. The book traces their relationship from their first meeting in Florida in their early 20s through their artistic development, shifting from lovers and confidantes to a more complex bond marked by longing and resentment, ending with both dying of AIDS in the late 1980s. The review highlights a renewed interest in the artists, citing recent exhibitions and a film.

Sanford Wurmfeld’s Unstable Geometry

Hyperallergic reviews Sanford Wurmfeld's exhibition "Squares 1971–74" at Ceysson & Bénétière in New York, featuring six paintings and one study from 1971 to 1974. The show highlights Wurmfeld's methodical exploration of color through gridded compositions of one-inch squares, using a limited palette of four hues to create optical interactions that shift as the viewer looks. Wurmfeld, who was the youngest artist in MoMA's 1968 "Art of the Real" exhibition, has long operated under the radar of the New York art world.

"Man biegt die Röhren wie Makkaroni"

This roundup of art news covers several stories: Sotheby's failed private auction of Jackson Pollock's "Number 19, 1951" from Arne Glimcher's collection; a restitution lawsuit filed in New York for Gustav Klimt's "Fräulein Lieser" against the Austrian owner and auction house im Kinsky; a critical reflection on the purpose of Gallery Weekends amid market pressure; a tribute to the late Hilde Lynn Helphenstein, creator of the Instagram account "Jerry Gogosian"; and a feature on the 100-year anniversary of Marcel Breuer's Wassily Chair and the Bauhaus tubular steel furniture revolution.

Argentinian artist Pablo Bronstein joins Olney Gleason.

New York gallery Olney Gleason has announced representation of London-based Argentinian artist Pablo Bronstein, in collaboration with London gallery Herald St and Galleria Franco Noero. Bronstein’s first exhibition with Olney Gleason is scheduled to open in September 2026.

‘Hold to This Earth’ Surveys the Abundance of American Indigenous Contemporary Art

A new exhibition titled 'Hold to This Earth' at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield, U.K., will open on June 13 and run through April 18, 2027. It features nearly 70 works by 38 artists representing 35 Tribal Nations, making it the largest presentation of American Indigenous contemporary art in the U.K. to date. The works are drawn from the Tia Collection and include pieces by Jeffrey Gibson, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Raven Halfmoon, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Dyani White Hawk, Nicholas Galanin, and others, spanning media from beads and clay to digital photography and mixed media.

Cats, flowers and Harry Hill’s car on fire – RA Summer Exhibition review

The 2024 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, coordinated by conceptual artist Ryan Gander, is reviewed as being less awful than usual. Gander introduces strangeness to the historic open-submission show, including a video of Bowie karaoke and a disembodied corpse in a living-room installation. The exhibition features thousands of works, from amateur flower drawings to pieces by Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley, and Sean Scully, alongside standout contributions from Harry Hill (paintings of cars on fire), Harriet Porter, and Glen Pudvine. The review notes the show's overwhelming density and its function as a buying opportunity for the public.

Mexico City museum with world's richest collection of Kahlo and Rivera works reopens after years of controversy

The Museo Dolores Olmedo in Xochimilco, Mexico City, reopened on May 30 after six years of closure and controversy over a planned relocation. The museum, housed in a former 16th-century hacienda, showcases the world's richest collection of works by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, along with founder Dolores Olmedo's pre-Hispanic and popular arts. New galleries highlight Olmedo's private spaces and her decades-long bond with Rivera, including 98 of his works arranged chronologically and Kahlo's iconic painting *The Broken Column* (1944).