david hockney unveils harry styles painting for national portrait gallery exhibition in london

David Hockney paints Harry Styles in normandy

Renowned British artist David Hockney presents a new portrait of pop star Harry Styles, to be displayed in an upcoming exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The artwork was completed in Hockney’s studio in Normandy, France, and depicts the 29-year-old As It Was singer wearing a red and yellow striped cardigan, jeans, and a string of pearls around his neck.

Titled David Hockney: Drawing from Life, the exhibition will also showcase a series of paintings completed in 2021 and 2022, which have never been presented in public before. The event will open on November 2, 2023, allowing visitors to explore this collection of Hockney’s most recent works, including the striking portrait of Harry Styles.

David Hockney Painting Harry Styles, (With Portrait of Clive Davis), Normandy Studio, 1st June 2022 | image by Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima

David Hockney: Drawing From Life

David Hockney: Drawing from Life had been previously displayed at the National Portrait Gallery (find more here), just for 20 days before the Gallery’s closure due to the 2020 Covid pandemic. Now, art enthusiasts have the opportunity to experience it once again, as the exhibition returns from November 2, 2023, to January 21, 2024. The exhibition has been restaged and expanded to feature 33 never-seen-before portraits painted in acrylic —including the Harry Styles painting— alongside a diverse selection of works from 2020, 2021, and 2022, created using pencil, pastel ink, colored pencils, pens, the artist’s 35mm camera, and apps found on his iPhone and iPad.

The result sees a curated selection of 160 works sourced from public and private collections worldwide, including contributions from the David Hockney Foundation (find more here) and the artist himself. Within this display, the trajectory of Hockney’s artistic journey comes to life, highlighted through his intimate portraits of five key sitters: Celia Birtwell, his friend; Laura Hockney, his mother; Gregory Evans, his former partner, and curator; Maurice Payne, his master printer; and David Hockney himself. Notably, each portrait was painted directly onto the canvas without any underdrawing, with Hockney completing them in just 2-3 sittings.

Harry Styles, 31st May 2022 by David Hockney. acrylic on canvas. 1219.2 x 914.4 mm © David Hockney | image by Jonathan Wilkinson, collection of the artist

‘Following our reopening and the success of a brilliant first summer, I am delighted to be restarting this major exhibition dor David Hockney at the new National Portrait Gallery, which makes good on a pledge I made to David in March 2020 thatwe would return to his wonderful exhibition in better days. Hockeny is one of the most internationally respected and renowned artists today, and to see his new portraits , made over the last couple fo years and which demonstrate his constant and continuous ingenuity and creative force, is life affirming,’ shares Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery.

‘Closing this five-star exhibition after just 20 days in 2020 was incredibly disappointing for the Gallery and its many visitors, making this restaging of ‘David Hockney: Drawing from Life’ all the more significant. Now revitalized with over thirty new energetic and insightful painted portraits of friends and visitors to the artist’s Normandy studio, it is a real privilege to have the opportunity to collaborate with David Hockney again,’ says Sarah Howgate, Senior Curator of Contemporary Collections at the National Portrait Gallery.

Celia, Carennac, August 1971 by David Hockney. colored pencil on paper. 431.8 x 355.6 mm © David Hockney | image by Richard Schmidt. collection The David Hockney Foundation

L-R: JR Gonçalves de Lima, 3d November 2021 by David Hockney. acrylic on canvas. 1219.2 x 914.4 mm © David Hockney | image by Jonathan Wilkison, collection of the artist

Gregory 1978 by David Hockney. colored pencil on paper. 431.8 x 355.6 mm © David Hockney | image by Richard Schmidt. collection The David Hockney Foundation

Self Portrait, 22nd November 2021 by David Hockney. acrylic on canvas. 914.4 x 762 mm © David Hockney | image by Jonathan Wilkinson, collection of the artist

Mother, Bradford. 19 Feb 1979 by David Hockney. sepia ink on paper. 355.6 x 279.4 mm © David Hockney | image by Richard Schmidt. collection The David Hockney Foundation

Self Portrait 26th Sept. 1983 by David Hockney. charcoal on paper. 762 x 571.1 mm © David Hockney. The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art