June 12, 2026
Your morning brew of art world media
Welcome to Art Spell, a daily, comprehensive roundup of art news and reviews for the visual arts community. Today’s Editor’s Pick is David Hockney, Who Restored the Human Form to Art, Dies at 88 by Holland Cotter for The New York Times. David Hockney, the British artist whose vibrant figurative paintings reshaped contemporary art over a six-decade career, has died at 88.
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Julia Bryan-Wilson, Rocío García
Apollo Magazine
Christina Makris, Marina Abramović is the toast of Tuscany
Michael Prodger, Vienna’s Albertina roars into the future
From the Editors, David Hockney dies at 88
Martin Gayford, Through a lens brightly: an interview with David Hockney
From the Editors, Four things to see: Mother and child
Art Asia Pacific
Beverly Yong, Valentine Willie, 1954–2026
From the Editors, Shows to See in Switzerland, June 2026
Aisha Traub Chan, New Currents: Melody Qingmei Li’s Porous Selves
Art in America
Emily Watlington, Is This the First Good Eco Art Survey?
Matthew Holman, David Hockney, an artist of brio and versatility, with global recognition beyond the art world, has died, aged 88
The Art Newspaper
Karen Chernick, Rescued mural depicting Alice’s adventures in New York wonderland back on view for first time in decades
Elena Goukassian, Drawings by Willem de Kooning, the ‘last Old Master’, take centre stage in Chicago show
Alexander Morrison, Edvard Munch’s chocolate factory series shines a light on the public artist he wanted to be
Gareth Harris, Child damages Magritte painting with pinecone
Maev Kennedy, ‘It’s a work of art’: rare, cloth-bound first edition of Wuthering Heights to be auctioned at Christie’s
Ben Luke, Pan-Africanism in London, the health benefits of art, Barbara Hepworth—podcast
Martin Bailey, Van Gogh’s wheatfields ‘under turbulent skies’
Claire Wrathall, Working in the fourth dimension: William Kentridge’s latest opera arrives at Glynbourne
Artforum
Oskar Oprey, Not on the guest list: London Gallery Weekend 2026
From the Editors, Phoenix Art Museum Receives 185 Indigenous Artworks in Major Gift
From the Editors, Iconoclastic Brussels Gallery Dépendance Goes Dark After 20+ Years
From the Editors, Frieze London, Frieze Masters Name Participants in 2026 Editions
From the Editors, Independent 20th Century Announces Details of 2026 Fair at the Breuer Building
Artnet
Jo Lawson-Tancred, David Hockney, Revolutionary and Beloved Painter, Dies at 88
Sonia Manalili and Ben Davis, Roberta Smith Still Has Notes
Vittoria Benzine, Inside the Artist Residency ‘Scandal’ Dividing the Internet
Min Chen, How Björk Turned Collaboration Into an Art Form
Margaret Carrigan, For JiaJia Fei, Making it in the Art World Means ‘Mission Over Permission’
Richard Whiddington, How A.I. Helped Identify a Lost Scottish Masterpiece
Richard Whiddington, The U.K. Rallied to Save a Barbara Hepworth Sculpture. Now It Anchors a Landmark Show
ARTnews
Maximilíano Durón, Cleveland Museum of Art Plans $600 M. Fundraising Campaign to Sustain Museum’s Long-Term Health
Brian Boucher, Mickalene Thomas, Known for Her Glittering Depictions of Black Women, Joins Jack Shainman Gallery
Leigh Anne Miller, French Scientists Have Developed a New Technology To Help Identify Forged Artworks
Anne Doran, Metropolitan Museum of Art Repatriates Two Khmer Sculptures to Cambodia
Tessa Solomon, Citing Financial Trouble, Charleston’s International African American Museum to Furlough Staff
From the Editors, A First Look at the Big-Ticket Artworks that Galleries Are Bringing to Art Basel 2026
Luisa Zargani, Fendi Names Rome Gallery for Couture Show, Karl Lagerfeld Exhibition
Tessa Solomon, Crimean Museum Struck by Ukrainian Drone, Reportedly Damaging Collection
Maximilíano Durón, Duane Michals, Maker of Enigmatic Sequences of Images That Defied Photography’s Conventions, Dies at 94
Brian Boucher, See Never-Before-Shown Martin Wong Works, Now On View in a Show Of His Chinatown Paintings
Devorah Lauter, Dépendance Gallery To Close After 23 Years in Brussels
Harrison Jacobs, ARTnews & Artforum Partner to Launch First Ever Art Week in New York
ArtReview
Fi Churchman, Saodat Ismailova: Nothing Disappears Completely
Pat Gilmour, What Did Critics Think of a Young David Hockney?
From the Editors, David Hockney, giant of British art, 1937-2026
The Brooklyn Rail
Killian Wright Jackson, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Many A Moonlit Caveat
Noa Wynn, Francine Tint: Open Color
William Corwin, Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists
Faye Hirsch, Tessa Greene O’Brien: Poems from Here
Barbara A. MacAdam, Kati Henning: An Unquiet House
Family Style
Sahir Ahmed, Now, Therefore, I
Tara Anne Dalbow, In Flux
Financial Times
Dorian Lynskey, What the end of the world looks like, according to the most apocalyptic artists
Frieze
Tara Anne Dalbow, A Restaged and Expanded ‘Dynaton’ Looks Beyond the Edge of the Known
From the Editors, How The Curated Programme at Frieze Masters is Rewriting Art History
From the Editors, The Next Generation of Artists Lead Frieze London 2026
Agnish Ray, Felix Gonzalez-Torres Still Troubles the Political Present
Galerie
From the Editors, British Artist David Hockney Dies at 88
Celia McGee, Discover This Year’s East Hampton Art & Design Days
Gogo Taubman, Fujiko Nakaya Fills the Bourse de Commerce with Fog
The Guardian
Charles Darwent, David Hockney obituary
Time Jonze and Donna Ferguson, David Hockney, revolutionary British artist, dies aged 88
From the Editors, Share your tributes and memories of David Hockney
Jonathan Jones, Kapoor’s sublime spectacle, Hepworth’s sculpture sings and Hockney passes away – the week in art
Lauren Cochrane, Peroxide mop, statement specs, tweed suits and quirky Crocs: David Hockney’s genius for fashion
Hyperallergic
Lakshmi Rivera Amin, Sarah Schulman’s Four Decades of Lesbian Fiction
Valentina Di Liscia, Art Movements: Sam Gilliam Foundation Names Its First Director
Lakshmi Rivera Amin, Required Reading
Rhea Nayyar, Charleston’s African American Museum Furloughs All Staff
Lori Waxman, A Better World at the Obama Center
Hrag Vartanian, They Want to Control Our Imagination
Isa Farfan, Painting “Intentionally” Defaced at Museum of African American Culture
The Los Angeles Times
Barbara Isenberg, David Hockney, whose art celebrated sun-drenched Los Angeles, dead at 88
Christopher Reynolds, At Riverside’s Mission Inn, former owner departs with historic art — and locals are outraged
Julius Miller, Woody Guthrie’s guitar, a Gettysburg photo: 5 must-sees at the Huntington’s new America 250 exhibit
MOMUS
Farrah Karapetian, Directly to the Adversary: Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore at CAM St. Louis
The New York Times
EDITOR’S PICK - Holland Cotter, David Hockney, Who Restored the Human Form to Art, Dies at 88: His colorful figurative paintings were both conservative and iconoclastic, defying the dominant abstract schools of the mid-20th century.
Norman Rosenthal, What I Learned From David Hockney
Alex Marshall, With iPhones and Faxes, David Hockney Embraced Tech
Observer
Dan Duray, One Fine Show: “Zurbarán” at the National Gallery in London
Nathan Smith, Essential Queer Reading for Pride Month and Beyond
Elisa Carollo, What Do Next-Gen Collectors Want From the Art World?
Vulture
Jerry Saltz, How Pace Gallery Broke Itself
Wall Street Journal
Branda Cronin, David Hockney, a Trans-Atlantic Titan of Art, Dies at 88
Andrew Shea, ‘Michelangelo Rodin: Living Bodies’ Review: Sculpting Greatness at the Louvre
The Washington Post
Phil Davison, David Hockney, renowned artist who captured fleeting moments in vivid color, dies at 88
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