Abstraction Resting on a Red and White Checkered Tablecloth Picnic Blanket

Serpentine unveils a new body of work by the celebrated British artist, comprising five still lifes alongside five portraits that depict members of the artist’s close circle, including his family and carers. These paintings are united by their frontal composition and by the recurring motif of a gingham tablecloth that provides the setting for each composition. In these new works Hockney combines abstract and figurative modes of representation. For the artist, all figurative painting is inherently abstract, so long as it exists upon a flat surface.