David Hockney Sunley Window Celebrating 15 Years of Turner Contemporary
9 February, 2026
David Hockney’s Sunley Window 2026 unveiled for the gallery’s 15th anniversary
1 April–1 November 2026
Celebrating the gallery’s 15th anniversary this spring, Turner Contemporary is delighted to announce that David Hockney will realise the next Sunley Window opening on 1 April 2026. 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 Originally made as an iPad painting, the work reflects his long-standing engagement with digital technologies.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.
The installation coincides with a major exhibition at Serpentine by David Hockney titled A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting. The exhibition will be presented at Serpentine North in London from 12 March–23 August 2026. The Sunley Window will offer audiences outside the capital a rare opportunity to encounter work by Hockney.
‘Hockney’s sunrise, painted in Normandy in 2020, suggests renewal. Installed in the Sunley Window, it enters into a quiet but powerful dialogue with Margate’s own skies and sea. Illuminated at night, the work becomes a point of light on the seafront—one that encourages looking, long after the gallery doors have closed.’
Photo: David Hockney London, 14th November 2023 © David Hockney. Photo credit: Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima
Notes to Editors
David Hockney: Sunley Window 2026
1 April–1 November 2026
Turner Contemporary, Rendezvous, Margate, UK
Open: Tuesday–Sunday, & Bank Holidays, 11am–5pm
A Year In Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting
12 March–23 August 2026
Serpentine North, West Carriage Drive, London, UK
Open: Monday 11am–6pm, Tuesday–Sunday 10am–6pm
Press contacts
For all press enquiries about Turner Contemporary, contact: Rees & Co Fiona Russell fiona.russell@reesandco.com +44 (0)7917 130801
For all press enquiries about David Hockney, contact: Erica Bolton erica@boltonquinn.com +44 (0)7711 698 186
About Turner Contemporary
Turner Contemporary is one of the UK’s most visited contemporary art galleries and part of the town’s vibrant creative community. Opened in 2011 and designed by David Chipperfield, the gallery presents an ambitious programme of exhibitions, events and learning opportunities inspired by JMW Turner’s legacy and his enduring connection to Margate. In 2026, Turner Contemporary marks its 15th anniversary. Since opening, the gallery has played a pivotal role inthe region’s cultural and economic regeneration, welcoming over 4.8 million visitors and contributing more than £100 million to the local economy.
About David Hockney
David Hockney became known as a central figure of British art in the 1960s and continues to be widely celebrated as one of the most influential artists of our time. Born in Bradford in 1937, he graduated from the Bradford School of Art in 1957 and studied at the Royal College of Art from 1959–62. Alongside his prodigious painting and drawing practice, he has constantly explored new technological possibilities in making art. In the 1980s he embraced Polaroid film, photocopying and faxing and, more recently, digital media including photoshop and his iPad as new means of conceiving and creating mesmerising multiple-view and composite images. Now in his eighties, Hockney continues to create new works in all media with his unwavering desire to continually challenge conventions of perspective in art and how we truly ‘see’.
