Events, Festivals and Exhibitions

This summer the Royal Academy of Arts will present David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 at its Galleries 2, 3, Central Hall and Lecture Room.

This new body of work was created by the Yorkshire artist at his home in France, during the onset of the Covid pandemic, when Normandy, like much of Europe was under lockdown. By focusing on the natural emergence of spring rather than the shutting down of the world around here, Hockney embraces a traditional theme of his – the need to “love life”.

David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 is the first time these works will be exhibited almost a year after they were made.

It will include more than a hundred artworks that the artist has painted on his iPad. The works are shown chronologically and densely hung to create the sense that you are walking through nature across the three galleries.

Part of the inspiration for the works is the Bayeux Tapestry that is located close to the artist’s home in Normandy, northern France.

The exhibition also demonstrates Hockney’s lifelong experimentation which involved a mathematician updating the ‘brushes’ app on his iPad to the artist’s specification.

In July 2020 Hockney wrote, “I have been working this year, 2020, to depict the arrival of spring in Normandy. This takes about three months, and I think it’s the most exciting thing nature has to offer in this part of the world.

“When the lockdown came… we were in a house in the middle of a four-acre field full of fruit trees. I could concentrate on one thing, I did at least one drawing a day with the constant changes going on, all around the house. I kept drawing the winter trees, and then the small buds that became the blossom, and then the full blossom. Then the leaves started, and eventually the blossom fell off leaving a small fruit and leaves, this process took about two weeks, all the time I was getting better at my mark making on the screen, eventually doing, à la Monet, the water lilies in the pond.”

The Arrival of Spring Images

About David Hockney

Born in Bradford, 1937, Hockney attended Bradford School of Art before studying at the Royal College of Art from 1957 to 1962. His reputation was established in the Young Contemporaries exhibition in London, 1960; which marked the advent of British Pop Art.

David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020

Organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London in collaboration with the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels (BOZAR). Curated by Edith Devaney, Curator of Contemporary Projects at the Royal Academy of Arts, in close collaboration with the artist.

Exhibition Dates

Royal Academy of Arts 23 May – 26 September 2021

• Main Galleries (Galleries 2, 3, Central Hall and Lecture Room) from 23 May – 1 August, 2021
• The Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries from 11 August – 26 September, 2021

Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels (BOZAR) 8 October, 2021 – 23 January, 2022.

Exhibition Opening Hours

23 May to 26 September, 2021 (10am to 6pm – last admission 5:30pm). Closed Mondays.

Tickets for the Exhibition

From £17. Under 16s and Friends of the RA free (T&Cs apply). Advanced booking is essential. All visitors must have a pre-booked timed ticket.

For further information

Contact: royalacademy.org.uk or call 0207 300 8090.