David Hockney: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting

Mesmerising exhibition at Serpentine North of new work by David Hockney.

The main work is a 90ft mural of ipad paintings done in the countryside around Hockney's home in Normandy during lockdown joined into one long work to document the year 2020. You walk round it and watch the seasons blend into each other. It reminded me of the market scene in Nottinghill. You saw the same trees with bare branches, blossom and fruit.

The work had a similar effect on me as Antony Gormley's "Field" works or as I call them "The Little People" in that I found it very hard to walk away and leave it.

The two central galleries and portraits from 2025 of people or abstract pieces on or behind gingham tablecloths. I loved one of one of Hockney's carers wearing a badge saying "End Bossiness Soon" which were for sale in the shop so I had to indulge.

Stop Press : Since going to the show Hockney has sadly died. It felt like this was a very suitable show to be the last in his lifetime. It showed him still painting and engaging with technology as well as being joyous.

Closes 23 August 2026


Reviews

Times

Guardian

Telegraph

Evening Standard


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year Exhibition 2019

Image
Delightful exhibition at Clarendon Fine Art showing pictures from the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year TV series. I had loved the series which had set nine artists, both professional and amateur, to paint one of three celebrities. It then had a semi-final and final with them all looking at one sitter and in the final they also took on a commission. I loved the way you watched a picture build and how some were then made or spoiled by one stroke of paint.   Finding these pictures I knew so well in the flesh was therefore fascinating. None of them disappointed. My favourite artist from the final, Tom Mead, works looked just as good in real life if not better as you could see the detail. The show included his impressive self-portrait which he submitted to enter the competition, a wonderful fragmented picture of his reflection in a mirror giving a sense of movement. I loved that it included a large version of him and a miniature. His commission for the final of Jazzie B...
Read more

Titian's The Aldobrandini Madonna : a longer look

Image
A lovely study morning at the National Gallery looking at the Aldobrandini Madonna by Titian lead by Caroline Brook. I thought I knew the National Gallery Titian’s well but I must admit to not consciously looking this one before. On first glance it looks like a standard Madonna and child plus John the Baptist with a saint but as you look closely you start to question whether the figure is a saint as she has no halo or attributes and also to wonder why the Madonna is sitting in the countryside. We started by looking at the context of the picture in 16th century Venice and where it sits in Titian’s career. Titian was prolific in the 1530s when this picture was probably painted but very little of the work survives. For example of 12 works done for the Hapsburgs only 2 survive. We spent a lot of time in the gallery looking first at a Bellini of a Madonna in a landscape and then comparing that to the Titian. The tutor made us look carefully at the work and then we compare ...
Read more

Tai Shan Schierenberg: Men Without Women

Image
Stunning exhibition at Flowers Gallery of new work by Tai Shan Schierenberg. There were just a few large pictures in this show by a former winner of the BP Portrait Award which examined ideas of masculinity in Western society. They grabbed you with their size and colour as you entered the gallery. I loved “No Man Left Behind” a study of two men supporting a slumped figure. I assume he was a drunk on a stag night but it could be a runner in a race. All the figures have a well caught, naturalistic stance. Other pictures showed footballers as he was artist in residence at West Bromwich Albion for a Channel   4 series. My favourite piece was a striking double portrait (140 x 200 cm) called “Brothers”, two young men sitting one behind the other and facing in different directions with a blue bookcase behind.  Closed   23 November 2019
Read more