For the first time, David Hockney on show at London's Serpentine Gallery: new works and a monumental frieze

One of the most significant artists on the contemporary scene, David Hockney (Bradford, Yorkshire, 1937), invites the public to slow down the pace and recognize the exceptional in the everyday in his first exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London. Created especially for this occasion, the new paintings expand a lifelong reflection of the artist: the act of looking as a profound experience, capable of revealing how even the simplest beauty deserves attention and celebration.
From March 12 to August 23, 2026, the Serpentine will present a selection of new and recent works by the artist at Serpentine North. The exhibition will bring together a previously unseen core of paintings created for the gallery along with the monumental frieze A Year in Normandy (2020-2021), on view for the first time in London. Admission to the exhibition, which marks Hockney’s debut at the Serpentine, will be free.

The exhibition includes a new body of work by the celebrated British artist: five still lifes and five portraits dedicated to people in his inner circle, including family members and caregivers. The works share a frontal setting and the recurring presence of a checked tablecloth that becomes a common element of the composition. In these paintings Hockney interweaves abstract and figurative languages, blending formal synthesis and attention to detail.

On the occasion of the exhibition, a large printed mural will be placed in the Serpentine North garden, depicting a spring episode from A Year in Normandie, featuring a tree house surrounded by nature. The monumental print will be placed at the back of the North Gallery, evoking the Normandy garden in which the original work took shape.

Entitled David Hockney: A Year in Normandy and Some Other Thoughts about Painting, the exhibition will feature the celebrated frieze, arranged around the perimeter of the gallery, which follows the passing of the seasons in the artist’s French studio. Hockney encourages dwelling on natural cycles, arguing that even the most ordinary gestures are worthy of wonder. During the spring of 2020, as the world slowed down, the artist continued to observe the surrounding landscape, making more than a hundred digital paintings on iPads with a quick, intuitive approach, in ideal dialogue with the Impressionists. The format of the work is inspired as much byChinese pictorial scrolls as by the famous Bayeux Tapestry. Using digital tools, Hockney was able to record atmospheric and luminous variations en plein air, synthesizing them into vibrant compositions where flat backgrounds and intense colors coexist with pop and dynamic accents. As the days change, spring gives way to summer, then fall and finally winter, in an enveloping visual continuum.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog designed by the artist, which will include contributions by Marco Livingstone and Olivia Laing, as well as an extensive conversation between Hockney and the Serpentine’s artistic director, Hans Ulrich Obrist. The exhibition is curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist together with Claude Adjil, with Liz Stumpf as assistant curator.

For the first time, David Hockney on show at London's Serpentine Gallery: new works and a monumental frieze

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.