David Hockney presents a major exhibition of new and recent work at Serpentine, opening at Serpentine North from tomorrow, 12th March to 23rd August 2026.
“I have always believed that art should be a deep pleasure…There is always, everywhere, an enormous amount of suffering, but I believe that my duty as an artist is to overcome and alleviate the sterility of despair… New ways of seeing mean new ways of feeling… I do believe that painting can change the world.”
David Hockney
The presentation marks Hockney’s first exhibition at Serpentine, featuring a new body of paintings created specifically for the show alongside the artist’s monumental frieze A Year in Normandie (2020–2021), which is shown in London for the first time.
The new works include five still lifes and five portraits depicting members of Hockney’s close circle, including family members and carers. Each painting is structured around a frontal composition and set against a recurring motif: a gingham tablecloth that forms the visual foundation for the scenes.
In these works, Hockney brings together figurative observation and abstract composition. For the artist, the two approaches are inseparable. As he has often noted, figurative painting is always also abstract, simply by existing on a flat painted surface.
Alongside the gallery exhibition, Serpentine presents a large-scale printed mural by Hockney in the garden at Serpentine North. The work reproduces a scene from the spring cycle of A Year in Normandie, showing a treehouse within the artist’s garden in Normandy.
Originally created as an immersive frieze measuring over 90 metres in length, A Year in Normandie traces the seasonal changes in the landscape surrounding Hockney’s home in northern France. Its presentation in London offers audiences a rare opportunity to experience the work outside its original context.
Together, the new paintings and the monumental landscape frieze highlight Hockney’s continuing exploration of colour, perception and the rhythms of everyday life.
David Hockney, 12th March – 23rd August 2026, Serpentine North, London
Free admission
