In the spring of 2020, as the Covid-19 virus was “going mad”, David Hockney kept himself busy by painting winter trees bursting into blossom in his Normandy garden. “Many people said my drawings were a great respite from what was going on,” Britain’s pre-eminent living artist 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.
