HOCKNEY HOMAGE: One of David Hockney’s last mega-projects was a sprawling retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris last year.
The British artist, who died on June 11 at age 88, attended opening festivities for the exhibition, his largest ever. It spanned more than 400 works from 1995 to 2025 across a variety of mediums. It ran from April 9 to Aug. 2, 2025.
“Throughout his long pictorial quest, David Hockney never ceased to explore the representation of nature’s infinite variations and the new possibilities of digital tools,” Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, said in a statement shared with WWD on Saturday.
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“David Hockney’s passing, which deeply saddens me, is an irreplaceable loss for the art world,” Arnault added. “His free and luminous vision profoundly marked our era and attracted nearly 1 million visitors to the Fondation Louis Vuitton. I extend my deepest condolences to the loved ones of this immense artist.”
According to the David Hockney Foundation, the artist continued painting “with vigor” after returning from the Fondation Louis Vuitton show, and mounted two new shows in London. One was at Annely Juda Fine Art, and the other is taking place at the Serpentine Galleries in Hyde Park.
“A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts About Painting” opened in March and runs until Aug. 23.
It features a series of new paintings, including portraits of Hockney’s family and carers and the monumental frieze “A Year in Normandie (2020-2021),” on view in London for the first time. The frieze extends across the perimeter gallery of Serpentine North, charting the change of seasons at the artist’s former studio in Normandy, France.
“These shows revealed the most developed stage yet of Hockney’s exploration of ‘reverse perspective’ as a pictorial device,” according to the foundation, noting that future exhibitions at the Tate in London and the Munch Museum in Oslo are in development.
Among Hockney’s most celebrated paintings is “Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy,” a double portrait depicting fashion designer Ossie Clark and textile designer Celia Birtwell, and a white cat, shortly after their wedding.
It was included in the Fondation Louis Vuitton show, which concentrated mainly on landscape works, realized in Yorkshire, London and Normandy, France.
Hockney is survived by his long-time partner and companion Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima, his great-nephew Richard, his brothers Philip and John, and numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, according to the foundation.
