Hockney frieze of Normandy to go on display in London

In the spring of 2020, as Covid-19 was "going mad", David Hockney kept himself busy by painting trees bursting into blossom in his Normandy garden.

- Harriet Sherwood

In the spring of 2020, as Covid-19 was "going mad", David Hockney kept himself busy by painting trees bursting into blossom in his Normandy garden. "Many people said my drawings were a great respite from what was going on," he said at the time.

Citizens of the post-pandemic world, with its rollercoaster of conflict, rightwing populism, climate crisis and techno-revolution, may still be in need of Hockney's respite by next spring. They will find it at an exhibition of his extraordinary 90-metre frieze, A Year in Normandy, and other works at the Serpentine gallery in London.

The free exhibition is likely to draw thousands of fans of the 88-year-old artist, adored for his vibrant images, bluff Yorkshire manner and defiant advocacy of smoking. It will be mounted in the same year that the Bayeux tapestry comes to the UK for the first time in nearly 1,000 years, and Hockney has cited the medieval work as an inspiration for his frieze.