One of the greatest living legends of contemporary art, David Hockney, invites us all to slow down, take a breath, and notice the extraordinary beauty hidden within the ordinary with his new exhibition at Serpentine North Gallery.
Running from 12 March to 23 August 2026, the exhibition “David Hockney: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting” presents the freshest fruits of the artist’s endless passion for the act of looking.
A Colour Feast Stretching as Far as the Eye Can See
As soon as you step into the exhibition hall, what greets you is not an ordinary painting, but an immense seasonal cycle so vast that you feel you could step inside and walk through it. Hockney’s monumental 90-metre-long frieze A Year in Normandie, created in inspiration from the famous Bayeux Tapestry, meets the London audience for the first time.
As your eyes glide across this enormous work, you witness second by second the awakening of nature around Hockney’s studio in Normandy. You watch how the fresh, bright greens of spring gradually turn into the scorching yellows of summer; how the melancholic reds of autumn surrender to the bare and serene whites of winter. The brushstrokes are so vibrant, the colours so generous, that you can almost feel the trees rustling in the wind, the earth breathing, or the spring rain falling on the leaves. This is not just a painting to be looked at; it is a living calendar of nature that you experience and step into.
A Perfect Dialogue with Kensington Gardens
The exhibition also includes brand-new paintings created especially for this presentation, and it plays a wonderful game with the space itself. The dizzying pastoral world Hockney creates on his canvases overflows the walls of Serpentine North and enters into a perfect dialogue with the greenery of Kensington Gardens just outside. As the real nature outdoors blends with the painted nature indoors, the artist’s core belief smiles at us with every brushstroke: simple beauties are always worth celebrating.
If you want to escape the rush of daily life and take refuge in Hockney’s colourful and serene world, you have until 23 August 2026. It is also worth noting that the exhibition is completely free.
Bringing the fresh breeze of Normandy and the joy of living right into the heart of London, this exhibition is a unique opportunity to bathe your soul in colour.
