Celebrated English artist David Hockney will exhibit his painting of Harry Styles at the National Portrait Gallery in London later this year.
The painting is part of a collection of over 30 portraits that will be exhibited for the first time at the gallery. It arrives as part of the installation David Hockney: Drawing from Life, which opens on November 2nd.
The painting of Harry Styles was created by Hockney at his studio in Normandy, France, where the musician posed for him. It depicts the former One Direction vocalist sporting a pearl necklace, blue jeans, and a striped orange and red cardigan in the centre of the frame. Other portraits in the collection include those of Hockney’s late mother, Laura, former partner Gregory Evans, fashion designer Celia Britwell and people from his local community in France.
Whilst many of the works will be seen in public for the first time in November, the collection has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery before. The original set of works was displayed in 2020, but only for 20 days, as the venue was forced to close due to the pandemic.
Per a report in The Independent, as well as including 33 new works, the exhibition features pencil drawings from Paris in the early 1970s, as well as drawings from the 1980s, when the Bradford-born artist crafted a self-portrait every day for two months.
“Closing this five-star exhibition after just 20 days in 2020 was incredibly disappointing for the gallery and its many visitors,” Sarah Howgate, senior curator of contemporary collections at the National Portrait Gallery, told the publication. “Now revitalised with over 30 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.”
The Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Nicholas Cullinan, added: “Hockney is one of the most internationally respected and renowned artists today, and to see his new portraits, made over the last couple of years and which demonstrate his constant and continuing ingenuity and creative force, is life-affirming.”
