What the Critics Say About Hockney's A Year in Normandie

David Hockney's 90-metre-long iPad frieze and new portraits of friends and acquaintances has divided the critics in London.

The free exhibition, which runs until August, sees the veteran artist continuing his longstanding exploration of digital media and new technology, which began in the mid-1980s.

While most hail Hockney's continued experimentation as visionary, others find he has compromised traditional painterly skill and coherence.

Many critics have enthusiastically embraced the exhibition’s scale and conceptual depth. Former arts minister Ed Vaizey declared Hockney's frieze "a masterpiece in itself," predicting a wider cultural impact.

In The Times of London, Laura Freeman writes: "You feel David Hockney’s A Year in Normandie as much as you see it. Plenty of exhibitions promise an immersive experience. This one draws you in and wraps you up," adding "Rarely has the Serpentine North gallery made a happier marriage with an artist."

Wallpaper magazine found the show "thrilling," particularly noting "a series of ten new works created in late 2025 for this exhibition."

Artnet News also highlighted his latest works, stating, "Another five portraits are some of Hockney’s strongest from recent years, surpassing the expectations set by his 2023 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery" in London.

Whitewall lauded Hockney's iPad works that form the frieze, seeing painting in his hands not as "a static window onto the world but a living field of perception—expansive enough to hold memory, movement, and the rhythms of time itself".

Some critics expressed reservations, however, primarily concerning the aesthetic and technical outcomes of the digital frieze.

Ben Eastham in The Guardian critiqued the main work directly, stating, "I cannot believe in this picture. It is undone by the details: the joins between each panel are unaccountably messy, the clangorous colors resist even determined efforts to harmonise them." His review further suggested the piece "only looks great on your phone," indicating limitations of the medium in a gallery context.

Veteran art critic Sarah Kent's review on the Arts Desk website is pointed. She thinks Hockney "reduces the richness and complexity of the real world into faux naive truisms," and that he has "sacrificed his skills in order to play with a new digital toy."

David Hockney's A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting is on view at Serpentine North until August 23. Free admission.