Artist David Hockney will unveil a major work this spring at Turner Contemporary in Margate, UK, as part of the gallery’s 15th anniversary celebrations. “Measuring seven by ten metres, Hockney’s work will transform the gallery’s iconic floor-to-ceiling window in the Sunley Gallery overlooking Margate’s beaches and the North Sea,” a statement says.
The new window piece (1 April-1 November) will depict a sunrise in Normandy based on a work Hockney made in 2020 as an iPad painting. “Illuminated at night, the work becomes a point of light on the seafront,” says Clarrie Wallis, the director of Turner Contemporary. According to its annual report, Turner Contemporary drew more than 322,000 visitors from 2023 to 2024 (year ending 31 March 2024).
The gallery, which opened in 2011, is inspired by the life and work of the 18th-century British artist JMW Turner who has also been a touchstone for Hockney. In 2007, the Bradford-born artist co-curated an exhibition of Turner’s watercolours at Tate Britain in London.
The appetite for Hockney shows no sign of slowing down in the UK. The Serpentine Galleries' first-ever show by the octogenarian artist opens next month (12 March-23 August 2026). “The exhibition unveils a new body of work by the celebrated British artist, comprising five still-lifes alongside five portraits that depict members of the artist’s close circle, including his family and carers,” a statement from the London-based gallery says.
The show will also feature A Year in Normandy (2020-21), a 90m-long frieze inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, showing the change of seasons at the artist’s former studio in Normandy. The Bayeux Tapestry is due to go on show at the British Museum later this year.
Earlier this year Hockney said that bringing the tapestry to London this autumn is “madness”, adding that the "beautiful as well as historically important" masterpiece could be damaged in transit, a claim refuted by the museum director, Nicholas Cullinan.
Hockney shows are a proven crowd-pleaser; his retrospective at Tate Britain in 2017 drew more than 478,000 visitors. The largest-ever exhibition on the British artist also took over the entire Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris last year, attracting thousands of visitors.
