Good Morning!
- Multi-hyphenate artist Daniel “Danny” Simmons has died at age 72.
- Only two people attended David Hockney’s funeral last week, per his last wishes.
- At the Obama Presidential Center opening on June 19, the former president warned against those who “see government as nothing more than a way to divvy up the spoils.”
The Headlines
IN MEMORIAM. Artist, activist, philanthropist, and community leader Daniel “Danny” Simmons has died at 72, reports ARTnews’ Brian Boucher. Simmons was the older brother of hip-hop star Russel Simmons and rapper Joseph Simmons, known as Rev Run, of the group Run-DMC. The three brothers co-founded the New York gallery Rush Arts and the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, which supported disadvantaged artists of color. Simmons also founded Corridor Gallery in his Brooklyn loft apartment, to name just a few of his creative initiatives and long list of accomplishments. As for his artistic style, self-described as Neo-African Abstract Expressionism, it was recently on full display at the traveling exhibition “Danny Simmons: The Journey to Everything,” at the Reginald F. Lewis Museumin Baltimore in 2024, and the Houston Museum of African American Culture in 2025. In a 2017 interview with Griot, Simmons memorably stated: “Art saves lives. It’s that simple.”
LAST WISHES. For his final wishes, David Hockneyasked for only two people to attend his funeral last week: his partner, Jean-Pierre Goncalves de Lima, and his great-nephew, Richard Hockney, a photographer who also worked as his assistant, reports The Guardian. But the rest of the world will have a chance to pay their respects as well. Hockney’s life and work will be celebrated in memorial services held across the many places where the late artist lived, according to his publicist Erica Bolton. The first memorial service will be held in London in the spring of 2027, followed by services in Yorkshire, Paris, and Los Angeles. Plus, next year, Tate Britain and the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern will host Hockney exhibitions.
The Digest
At the Obama Presidential Center opening on June 19 in Chicago, the former president urged not “to give in to cynicism,” while warning against opening the door to those who “see government as nothing more than a way to divvy up the spoils.” [The Washington Post]
Wulf Herzogenrath, the influential German art historian and long-time, former director of the Kunsthalle Bremen, died in Berlin on Thursday, at age 82. [dpa]
Internationally acclaimed Israeli kinetic sculptor Yaacov Agam died on Sunday, at age 98. [Times of Israel]
President Trump has blamed his attempt to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, plagued by algae blooms and a peeling, brand-new blue coating, on alleged vandals. [NPR]
After eight years of restoration work, the pediment on the Parthenon’s western façade in Athens has finally been unveiled, revealing a fuller view of the Acropolis, which has not been seen in over 200 years. [Artnet News]
A hacker accessed some 7,200 unsold NFTs of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss from Vienna’s Belvedere Museum, worth 1,850 euros ($2,118) each, but luckily wasn’t able to link the NFTs with their image files. [Der Standard]
A newly restored chapel in Paris’ Saint-Eustache church spotlights a hidden gem: Keith Haring’s final artwork before he died of AIDS in 1990 at age 31, a gold-patinated bronze triptyque titled The Life of Christ. [Le Monde]
The Kicker
GALLERIES, ARE YOU OK? In a guest opinion essay for the New York Times, former head of Art Basel, Marc Spiegler, says “art galleries are not ok.” In short, Spiegler explains that the art world has expanded its supply of art, of dealers, and of fairs—but not of art sales to coveted collectors, which remain a rare sliver of the global population. “There just aren’t enough collectors, especially new collectors, to make the math of this supersized art world add up.” He adds that, “if you read the Art Basel/UBS Art Market Report for 2026 carefully, and adjust for inflation, the data shows that the art market has stagnated,” with 2025 numbers equating those from the 2009 recession and the 2020 pandemic. For galleries, this is especially painful, as costs continue to rise, and sales have slowed. Spiegler recommends a few solutions: Galleries need legally enforceable resale agreements to block fast resale of works, or flipping, and they must “stop promoting art as an investment.” Rather, he urges galleries to prioritize developing local or regional markets, rather than “chasing the chimera of globalization.” After all, “FOMO is not a business model,” Spiegler writes. “Staying closer to home might be a smarter one.”
