I was very sad to hear that David Hockney has died just shy of his 89th birthday.

Hockney was one of the most influential artists of the modern era and a key contributor to the 1960s pop art movement.

I loved his work, and his restless inventiveness. He opened worlds, and minds. 

As the Guardian’s obituary says, “David Hockney caught the look of the modern world”.

He was also a fierce pro-smoking advocate, believing that smoking bans restricted personal liberty. As Norman Rosenthal, co-curator of the FLV exhibition, said in an interview, “For him, smoking is a symbol of freedom, to end bossiness. He doesn’t like being told on the packet some awful scare warning.”

This all came to a head last year when the Paris Metro banned a David Hockney exhibition poster because the photo shows him holding a cigarette. The picture was meant to promote Hockney’s blockbuster show at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, but the transport authorities had other ideas.

Hockney described it as “complete madness”.

This was the photo...

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