An exhibition of recent portraits by David Hockney will be going on display later this year at the recently reopened National Portrait Gallery, including the headline portrait of Harry Styles.
David Hockney Painting Harry Styles, (With Portrait of Clive Davis), Normandy Studio, 1st June 2022. Photo: Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima.
The exhibition will explore the artist’s work over the last six decades, with the addition of new portraits – depicting friends and visitors to Hockney’s Normandy studio.
It’s also a resumed exhibition, as the gallery had opened a David Hockney exhibition in March 2020, only to close it just 20 days later when the UK went into the pandemic lockdown. The relaunch of the exhibition has also been refreshed to include over 33 new portraits, painted at the artist’s Normandy studio between 2021 and 2022.
Hockney’s new paintings will be displayed alongside the 160 portraits originally exhibited as part of 2020’s presentation, rendered in pencil, pastel, ink and watercolour, using both traditional and non-traditional drawing equipment, including coloured pencil, pen, the 35mm camera and apps found on the iPhone and iPad.
Bringing the exhibition right up to date, new single and double portraits include depictions of the artist’s partner, Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima, and people from the local Normandy community. The portraits mark a return to painting after a period spent capturing the Normandy landscape around his home through the seasons on his iPad. Each portrait was painted from life directly onto the canvas without any under drawing and completed in 2-3 sittings.
Tickets are on sale now from here.
Adults: £21 | Concessions: £18.90 | Child (12-18): £10.50 | Child (<12): Free
The exhibition, David Hockney: Drawing from Life runs from 2nd November 2023 to 21st January 2024 at the National Portrait Gallery next to Trafalgar Square.
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