Luc Tuymans first met Yohji Yamamoto in 1999. The Belgian artist, fresh off his first solo show with @davidzwirner , was entranced by the rawness and refinement in the Japanese fashion designer’s work—a balance he was interested in striking with his own inquisitive paintings.
The two men have been friends ever since—and 25 years later, neither is resting on their laurels. Tuymans opened his 18th show with Zwirner earlier this month, and Yamamoto, now 82, is at the helm of a business generating more than $200 million a year. For CULTURED’s Artists on Artists issue, the pair reunited at Yamamoto’s Paris headquarters just days after the designer’s Spring/Summer ‘26 presentation for a cigarette and a conversation—led by their mutual friend, writer Donatien Grau—about their long friendship and even longer careers.
Read their conversation at the link in bio, and preorder the Artists on Artists issue before it hits stands in December.
Editor-in-Chief: @sarahgharrelson
Photography: @leonprost
