David Hockney Takes on the Bayeux Tapestry With a 300-Foot iPad Epic

"Just shy of 300-feet and improbably painted using an iPad, Hockney's frieze winds its way around the outer perimeter of "A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting," on view at Serpentine North through August 23. These nonchalantly referenced "other thoughts," however, are far from just afterthoughts. They comprise 10 new portraits and explorations of abstraction from 2025, a year that evidently saw Hockney busy hatching new experiments on the pictorial plane."

"Take, for example, the five abstract compositions "resting" on a checkered tablecloth. These see Hockney imitate various styles of abstraction with most obvious reference to Mark Rothko and Gerhard Richter. In the case of the latter, who is invoked by squeegee-style smears, this could be read as a provocation. In 2015, Hockney dismissed the German heavyweight."

"A decade later, perhaps Hockney is keeping an open mind. The titan of figurative art rejected pure abstraction as a student but kept the door open to a more coy, querying relationship. Abstraction has duly seeped into the interlocking planes of color with which Hockney builds worlds. Here, exceptionally, it takes center stage, which only serves to amplify its more subtle appearances."

David Hockney's exhibition at Serpentine North features "A Year in Normandie," a nearly 300-foot frieze painted on iPad that winds around the gallery's perimeter, inspired by the 11th-century Bayeux Tapestry and depicting seasonal changes. Accompanying this monumental work are ten new 2025 paintings comprising portraits and abstract explorations. Five abstract compositions reference Mark Rothko and Gerhard Richter, notably revisiting Richter after Hockney dismissed him in 2015, suggesting an evolved perspective. Five additional portraits represent some of Hockney's strongest recent work, surpassing his 2023 National Portrait Gallery exhibition. The show demonstrates Hockney's continued experimentation with abstraction, which has subtly influenced his figurative work but here takes unprecedented prominence.

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