David Hockney Sunley Window celebrating 15 Years of Turner Contemporary

Measuring seven by ten metres, Hockney’s work will transform the gallery’s iconic floor-to-ceiling window in the Sunley Gallery overlooking Margate’s beaches and the North Sea. It will be the first time a major work by the artist will be exhibited in Margate. 

Marking the beginning of spring, Hockney’s window depicts a sunrise in Normandy based on a work he made during 2020, the year he spent there producing an extraordinary body of work responding to the changing seasons, weather and light. Originally made as an iPad painting, the work reflects his long-standing engagement with digital technologies. 

Hockney’s Normandy paintings have been widely celebrated for their immediacy, optimism and close attention to the natural world. Spanning the Sunley Gallery’s window, the image creates a luminous threshold between gallery and shoreline—bringing Hockney’s Normandy sunrise into dialogue with Margate’s coastal setting. 

The work also resonates with Turner Contemporary’s founding inspiration. Hockney has frequently acknowledged his admiration for JMW Turner, particularly Turner’s radical treatment of light, atmosphere, and landscape. Installed on the site of the former boarding house where Turner stayed in Margate, Hockney’s sunrise aligns two artists through a sustained focus on light, the seasons, and the experience of looking. 

Main Image: David Hockney London, 14th November 2023 © David Hockney. Photo credit: Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima