David Hockney: A Year in Normandie...

David Hockney: A Year in Normandieand Some Other Thoughts About Painting
at Serpentine North
until 23 August
Monday 6 July at 6pm 

While I am already looking forward to seeing the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum this autumn, I still find myself looking back to lockdown - and in this exhibition so does Dovid Hockney. Finding himself in Normandie in 2020, inevitably he drew every day, using his now-preferred medium, the iPad. At home in his new studio, he created 200 paintings, from which about half were selected and edited together to create a frieze inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry. 

Restricted to one small part of the world, but more closely in touch with nature, rather than boats, soldiers, and spears, the rhythms of the piece are created by hills and trees, and together they become a portrait of the year in which so many people slowed down and were able to notice the narrative of the changing seasons.

First exhibited at the Jeu de Paume, home to Monet's own celebration of his envrionment - the waterlilies in his garden - Hockney's A Year in Normandie was also inspired by Chinese scroll paintings from the 14th century, and their ability to mobilise the viewer's gaze. It is joined at the Serpentine by a series of portraits created especially for this exhibition, and together the works continue Hockney's exploration of the way we look and see, and in using different media to capture the possibilities of art itself. I will use this meditation to try and encapsulate Hockney's lengthy career by discovering the ways in which his most recent work reflects his interests over the decades.

Please remember, I do not record my talks