David Hockney Used an iPad to Create This Sprawling 295-Foot-Long Frieze Inspired by the 11th-Century Bayeux Tapestry

The artwork, which depicts the changing seasons in Normandy, is the centerpiece of “A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts About Painting,” a new exhibition in London

Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent

March 19, 2026

Share

Copy linkEmailSMSFacebookXRedditLinkedInBlueskyPrint

Add as preferred source

Across his seven-decade artistic career, the British painter David Hockney, 88, has become well-known for depicting simple scenes with a signature sense of movement and joy.

“If any artist tells you he’s not having fun in his studio, there’s something wrong with him,” Hockney once said.

Vivid colors, abstract angles and eye-popping contrast breathe unexpected life into his portraits, still lifes and landscapes—the newest of which, now on display in London, embodies the artist’s energy with larger-than-life scale.

“A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts About Painting,” Hockney’s latest exhibition and first at the Serpentine Galleries in London, showcases work inspired by the changing seasons in Normandy, where the artist moved in 2019. The new free exhibition’s centerpiece is a 295-foot-long frieze, A Year in Normandie (2020-2021).

Wrapping across multiple walls, the piece was inspired by the 11th-century Bayeux Tapestry, a 230-foot-long embroidered cloth depicting the Norman conquest of England, and Chinese scrolls. In his version, Hockney stitched together more than 100 iPad paintings—made with a rubber-tipped brush, per the Guardian’s Ben Eastham—depicting his garden over the course of a year.

“I have always believed that art should be a deep pleasure,” Hockney says in a statement. “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.”

The frieze is joined by a collection of ten new acrylic paintings on canvas, according to the Financial Times’ Jackie Wullschläger. Five new portraits, all featuring the motif of a gingham tablecloth, depict members of the artist’s inner circle. These figures include Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima, his partner; Thomas Mupfupi, one of his carers; and Richard, his great-nephew.

The other five acrylics depict abstract paintings inspired by artists such as Mark Rothko and Gerhard Richter resting on the same kind of tablecloth. “We’re back on the theme of ‘painting within a painting’ that Hockney has been exploring since his student days,” writes the Independent’s Mark Hudson.

“In his new portraits, he captures not only his sitters but also the very act of seeing, while the frieze offers a deeply personal meditation on the passage of time,” Hans Ulrich Obrist, the Serpentine’s artistic director, says in a statement.

Hockney’s enduring popularity is evident in the large numbers of recent exhibitions and sales of his works. A retrospective in Paris last summer celebrated his love of springtime with more than 400 artworks, while a series of his iPad drawings from 2011 sold for more than $8 million at auction in October.

“I think it’s fair to say that David Hockney is like a national treasure,” art critic Tabish Khan tells the Associated Press’ Tom Rayner. “People love his work, and just his name attracts new audiences. But what I think we can all appreciate about him is as he’s got older, he never stops innovating.”

“A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts About Painting” is on view at the Serpentine Galleries through August 23, 2026.

Christian Thorsberg | Read More

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.