Marking the gallery’s 15th anniversary, Turner Contemporary in Margate this week unveiled a new large-scale work by David Hockney in its Sunley Window.
Depicting a sunrise in Normandy, the seven by ten metre, floor to ceiling piece is breathtaking. Its layers of colour wash across your field of vision. The sunrise itself is dazzling, while the landscape and nature around it provide even greater depth.
The brightening sky above the rising sun alone held my attention for a long time, with so many subtle colours intermixed. As I stared, seagulls flew across the sea view outside, bringing the artwork even more to life.
The life in the piece is what really struck me. It’s not simply a still image, it changes constantly due the light coming through it from the outside world. It casts an amazing splash of colours across the room, which shift every time a cloud moves. Clearly one viewing is not going to be enough, as the experience will be different from one visit to the next - including at night, when it will be illuminated from within the gallery for passers by.
After a brief period alone with the piece, I was joined by a class of year one pupils from nearby Salmeston Primary School. The group of five-year-olds had been selected to be the first to see it before its official unveiling to art critics and industry representatives later in the morning.
Seeing these children’s wonder match my own was a real joy, and listening to them giddily shout out what they saw in the image was very different - and more enjoyable - than hearing the musings of the adults after them.
The unveiling of Hockney’s Sunley Window coincides with the artist’s new exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London’s Hyde Park, A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting.
That exhibition is a very different proposition, with seamless artwork trailing its way around the dimly lit gallery and capturing a year’s worth of views across the French countryside. As it flows across the walls, it allows you to fully explore the painterly techniques Hockney has brought into a digital form.
Hockney first exhibited digital work in 2010, with an exhibition of pieces created on an iPhone and moved on to an iPad when the technology arrived. Still, I was somewhat dubious about the creation of grand works in this format.
If the Serpentine exhibition won me over, it was the Sunley Window where I was truly sold on the idea. This focus on one single scene at such a large scale gives an even greater insight into the development of Hockney’s art as he heads into his 90s.
Hockney has long been interested in capturing sunrises in his art. However, he has said that it was only once he began working on an iPad that he was able to work fast enough to capture this fleeting moment.
The sunrise that now fills the main foyer at Turner Contemporary was originally drawn in 2020, a year after Hockney settled in Normandy and one of 200 paintings he produced there that year.
David Hockney: Sunley Window 2026. Photos: Strange Tourist
David Hockney’s Sunley Window 2026 will be on display until November 1. After the gallery closes, it will be illuminated until 11pm each night to make it viewable from outside.
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