Zeev Aram

Furniture and interior designer Zeev Aram, who promoted numerous modernist and emerging designers at London's Aram Store, has passed away at the age of 89. Aram died in his home on 18 March. He was known for creating furniture pieces including the glass Altra Table, famously immortalised in a David Hockney painting, as well as being a patron to many emerging and under-appreciated designers.

When, in 1971, David Hockney was asked to paint a portrait of the retiring chief executive of London’s Royal Opera House, he insisted the sitter come to his Notting Hill flat. The resultant picture, Portrait of Sir David Webster, shows the ailing mandarin in a Mies van der Rohe chair, set next to a glass table with tubular steel legs. Both pieces of furniture had been sold to Hockney by Zeev Aram, who had additionally designed the second.

Zeev Aram, founder and chairman of Aram Designs, died on Thursday 18 March, aged 89. He was a much loved and respected figure on the London and international design scene, and helped introduce many iconic designers to the city. His life, reads a note from his family, was ‘hugely eventful...