The venerable UK artist David Hockney is reportedly not happy after Paris Metro bosses pulled a poster showing him holding a cigarette from the transport network. The Independent reports the picture was meant to promote Hockney’s forthcoming blockbuster show at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, David Hockney 25 (9 April-31 August). But, according to the paper, lawyers for the disgruntled network contacted Hockney to inform him that the photograph cannot be used to advertise the show.
The image shows the pop art painter sitting alongside a new self-portrait, entitled Play within a Play within a Play and Me with a Cigarette. Hockney told The Independent: “To hear from a lawyer from the Metro banning an image is bad enough, but for them to cite a difference between a photograph and a painting seems, to me, complete madness. They only object to the photograph, even though I am smoking also in the painting I am holding!”
The octogenarian is evangelical about lighting up, telling The Sunday Times magazine in 2020: “I've had three doctors in the past 40 or so years. They all told me to give up smoking and now they’re all dead.”