.................................the blog nobody reads

Friday, June 12, 2026

David Hockney - 1937-2026

Hockney in the 60s by Jane Bown

Aww, heck! One of Britains greatest painters EVER is lost to us . . . . . .

David Hockney CH, artist, was born on July 9, 1937. His death was announced on June 12, 2026, aged 88

https://apple.news/A6t7RoGUBTPKtfql_xYgZcA

and now our beloved David Hockney the modern master of art painting bar none

the Guardian

early talent

Hockney 1957 'Tunwell Lane

Tea Painting in an Illusionistic Style

Man in a Museum (or You're in the Wrong Movie)

We Two Boys Together Clinging (after Walt Whitman)

Going to Be Queen For Tonight (Royal College)

Palm Trees

the move to California

perhaps his most famous painting

A Bigger Splash (Tate Gallery)

in the studio

back home to Yorkshire iPad firmly in hand

working up to the very end

David Hockney Foundation

Duane Michals (1932-2026)

Saddened to hear of the passing of another great hero in artist photographer Duane Michals this week(94) We were privileged to show him at MOMA Oxford under the aegis of the brilliant then Deputy Director Marco Livingstone in 1984 and we got to know him and his witty clever and life affirming art.

Marco humoured my obsession and allowed me to write a potted bio for the catalogue which was a great kindness so that I might feel involved. Duane was always kind and warmly affectionate and with an unerring eye for the absurd with a twinkle and ready smile that never left him. We are the poorer for his passing and of course need his smiles now more than ever.
I shall miss him

self portrait

the spirit leaves the body

Portrait of Magritte

the illuminated man (self portrait)

Michals, Duane; Livingstone, Marco (1984). Duane Michals: Photographs, Sequences, Texts, 1958–1984. Oxford: Museum of Modern Art. ISBN 978-0-905836-46-1.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duane_Michals

Jackie Wilson - Higher and Higher with Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth

Friday you say?! . . . .you dancin’?

You askin’?

I’m Askin’!

I’m DANCIN’!

Jackie Wilson - Higher and Higher with Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Richard Thompson - Can’t Win 1988

Richard Thompson - Can’t Win 1988

A BLISTERING LIVE version of this favourite angry song somehow more relevant today with one of the finest guitar solos ever composed IMHO

For draftervoi who posted two fine ROIOs lately at the Wagon and very fine highly listenable quality they are too! [He worries you know!] Go check ‘em out via the links here:

Richard Thompson - Washington 1988 - Voodoo Wagon

Richard Thompson - Santa Rosa CA - 1991 Voodoo Wagon