The art of looking: a new chapter from David Hockney at Serpentine North

A major David Hockney exhibition is scheduled to open at the Serpentine Gallery this spring, marking the artist’s inaugural presentation at the institution. Titled David Hockney: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting, the show runs from March 12th to August 23rd, 2026, at Serpentine North, with a press view on the morning of March 11th.

Conceived in close collaboration with the 88-year-old British master, the exhibition brings together new and recent works, including seminal pieces shown in the UK for the first time. Admission will be free.

At the Serpentine Art Gallery: a monumental frieze comes to London

At the core of the David Hockney exhibition is A Year in Normandie (2020–2021), the artist’s celebrated ninety-metre-long frieze, which is being presented in London for the first time. Drawing inspiration from the historic Bayeux Tapestry, which will be on display at the British Museum in 2026, the panoramic work captures the changing seasons at Hockney’s former studio in Normandy.

Created from more than 100 iPad paintings, the frieze unfolds like a contemporary scroll, charting the passage from spring to winter in radiant colour. Digital tools allowed Hockney to work swiftly and intuitively, recording subtle shifts in light and weather en plein air. Installed around the perimeter gallery at Serpentine North, the work opens into a dialogue with Kensington Gardens, echoing the rhythms of nature beyond the museum walls.

New paintings and portraits

Alongside the monumental frieze, the exhibition unveils a new body of paintings created specifically for the Serpentine Art Gallery. The series includes five still lifes and five intimate portraits of people from Hockney’s close circle — family members and carers among them.

United by a frontal composition and the recurring motif of a gingham tablecloth, these works blend abstraction and figuration. For Hockney, figurative painting remains inherently abstract, bound to the flatness of the canvas. The result is a quietly radical exploration of perception: portraits that capture not only the sitter, but the act of seeing itself.

Extending the experience outdoors, a large-scale printed mural will be installed in the garden at Serpentine North. Depicting a tree house from the spring section of A Year in Normandie, the digital print mirrors the seasonal transformation unfolding in the surrounding park.

Throughout the exhibition, Hockney’s enduring message is clear: slow down, look closely, and rediscover the extraordinary within the everyday. In a year that also celebrates the Bayeux Tapestry, this David Hockney exhibition positions painting — whether on canvas or iPad — as both a timeless and continually evolving language.