Image: Serpentine Galleries, London
Serpentine Galleries will present ‘David Hockney: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting’ at Serpentine North Gallery from 12 March to 23 August 2026. The London exhibition is described by the institution as Hockney’s first at Serpentine and as a project created in close collaboration with the artist. Admission is free, with walk-up entry available when pre-booked tickets are sold out, though visitors may need to queue.
The show brings Hockney’s panoramic frieze ‘A Year in Normandie’ to London for the first time. Serpentine says the work was inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry and captures the changing seasons at the artist’s former studio in Normandy. The gallery also says the presentation includes new paintings made specifically for this exhibition, extending Hockney’s long-running interest in observing the everyday and in what the artist terms simple beauty.
Serpentine’s description frames the exhibition around looking closely and slowing down. The gallery presents Hockney as one of the most influential artists of his generation and notes that the exhibition reflects his lifelong fascination with perspective and with different ways of representing the world. The artist biography on the site traces that interest across painting, photographic collages, set design, drawing, printmaking and newer technologies, including Polaroid composites, fax-machine drawings and iPad paintings.
The exhibition is also positioned in relation to its setting in Kensington Gardens. Serpentine says that in the context of the show, ‘A Year in Normandie’ opens a dialogue with the surrounding nature of the park. The gallery’s notice makes that connection central to the presentation, pairing the work’s seasonal imagery with the garden setting around Serpentine North.
For visitors planning late-summer visits, Serpentine will extend opening hours until 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays in the final weeks of the exhibition. The free evening openings are scheduled for 7 and 8 August, 14 and 15 August, and 21 and 22 August 2026. The gallery says tickets will be available online and that walk-ups will also be welcome during those dates.
The exhibition page also lists a related public art mural, ‘David Hockney: A Year in Normandie (Detail)’, in Serpentine North Garden from 12 March to 20 September 2026. Serpentine describes that work as a public art mural by Hockney. Together with the gallery exhibition, the display extends the artist’s Normandy material across both indoor and outdoor settings at the London institution.
