British artist David Hockney's extraordinary 90-meter frieze titled "A Year in Normandy" will be featured in a major exhibition at London's Serpentine Gallery next spring. The massive artwork, created during the COVID-19 pandemic, chronicles the changing seasons through 220 iPad paintings that Hockney produced while living in his Normandy garden. The free exhibition promises to attract thousands of fans of the 88-year-old artist, who is beloved for his vibrant imagery, straightforward Yorkshire personality, and bold advocacy for smoking.

During the spring of 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic was wreaking havoc worldwide, Hockney kept himself occupied by painting winter trees as they burst into bloom in his Normandy garden. "Many people said my drawings were a great respite from what was going on," Britain's most prominent living artist reflected at the time. He believes that people in today's post-pandemic world, which continues to face a rollercoaster of conflicts, right-wing populism, climate crisis, and technological revolution, may still need the kind of respite his art provides when the exhibition opens next spring.

Hockney relocated to Normandy in late 2019 and initially began creating images of winter trees on his iPad. "Then this virus started," he told the BBC during the spring of 2020. He shared these digital images with friends and publicly released one featuring daffodils with the hopeful title "Do Remember They Can't Cancel the Spring." Explaining the appeal of his work during difficult times, Hockney said, "Why are my iPad drawings seen as a respite from the news? Well, they are obviously made by the hand depicting the renewal that is the spring in this part of the world."

The artist's philosophical approach to his pandemic artwork reflects his deeper connection to nature. "We have lost touch with nature rather foolishly as we are a part of it, not outside it," Hockney observed. "This will in time be over and then what? What have we learned?" He eventually combined all 220 pictures of the changing seasons into one continuous frieze, explaining that "the viewer will walk past it like the Bayeux tapestry, and I hope they will experience in one picture the year in Normandy."

The timing of Hockney's exhibition coincides with a remarkable cultural exchange between Britain and France. The famous Bayeux tapestry, which Hockney cites as an inspiration for his frieze and describes as "one of the oldest and most remarkable artworks," will come to London for the first time in nearly 1,000 years. However, this loan has generated controversy, with more than 60,000 people signing a petition urging French President Emmanuel Macron to reverse what they call his "catastrophic decision" to agree to the loan, as experts warn the tapestry is too fragile to be moved.

Born in Bradford in 1937, Hockney is the son of a devout Methodist mother and a father who was both a socialist activist and a conscientious objector during World War I. He decided at age 11 that he wanted to become an artist and went on to study at Bradford School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. During the 1960s, he created some of the works for which he remains most famous today: swimming pools, palm trees, blue skies, and beautiful people set against the backdrop of Los Angeles.

Throughout his career, Hockney has consistently embraced different media and technologies, with much of his recent work being produced on an iPad. This year marked a significant milestone with the largest Hockney exhibition ever mounted, featuring more than 400 images spanning 70 years of his career, hosted in Paris to rave reviews. That exhibition closes on Monday.

The upcoming London exhibition will feature more than just the Normandy frieze. Bettina Korek and Hans Ulrich Obrist of the Serpentine expressed their excitement that Hockney agreed to the exhibition, which they promise will be "a landmark cultural moment." The show will also include Hockney's celebrated Moon Room, which reflects his fascination with the cycle of light and the passage of time, as well as digital paintings from his Sunrise body of work.

"David Hockney: A Year in Normandy" will be displayed at Serpentine North from March 12 through August 23, 2026. The exhibition will close just weeks before the Bayeux tapestry, which depicts the 1066 conquest of England by William the Conqueror, goes on display at the British Museum in London, creating a unique cultural dialogue between these two remarkable artistic achievements separated by nearly a millennium.