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He’s still at it, the celebrated painter. At 88 years old, and more than 60 years into a career that has seen him rise to the pinnacle of the contemporary art pile, Hockney is still painting, constantly exploring, still innovating, and regularly exhibiting his work.

A Glimpse into the Exhibition

This exhibition – the first in a swish ultra-central London location for his long-term gallery, which has represented him for decades – is packed with paintings that feel freshly completed. The opening room is all eye-searingly bright still lifes: furniture, produce, and floral arrangements. While the themes are traditional and conventional, but nothing Hockney does is that dull, is it?

His Van Gogh-y wicker chairs glow in bright yellow and vivid purple; his floors are clashing compositions of red, yellow and orange shapes; his fruit is all primary and basic and childlike. Throughout, he experiments with his concept of “reverse perspective”, aiming to mirror true human vision, rather than the fixed perspective found in photos and traditional art. So everything looks wobbly and twisted. His chair legs splay, his tablecloths bend and curve. I don’t think it’s any closer to “real” perspective than traditional painting, yet the dizzying, uneasy sensation it produces is engaging and amusing. Photos of gardens are pasted into some of the compositions – little glimpses of a somewhat dull English reality that just make the rest of each work feel brighter and sunnier.

His work is always intriguing … Flowers on a Garden Table, 13 July 2025.

The Evolution of Brushwork

What is unmistakable is how much shakier these brush marks are compared to earlier works. Classic Hockney is so assured, displaying masterful control, but these new works are almost shockingly unsteady. The strokes are filled with shakes and vibrations, the lines are all over the shop, bits of white underpainting poke out everywhere. They border on chaotic, yet they are instantly, distinctly, and unmistakably his. It makes for quite an emotional, affecting experience – we observe a legendary artist aging through his art. Contrast this with his initial pieces featured in a separate exhibition from several months ago and it evokes the sense of a career’s beginning and end, and the somber reality is somewhat difficult to accept, truly.

Portraits: A Mixed Reception

The portrait section is the most controversial aspect. Hockney’s approach to skin tone has shifted toward a pointillist style in recent times and the result is a bunch of bodies that appear afflicted with blemishes. All the figures here are splotchy, flushed and marked, splodged with pink and red except for poor John Kasmin who seems to have gone a bit mouldy and gangrenous. The figures are closer to fresh corpses more than vibrant, living entities. A triple portrait of a man in a mirror is conceptually interesting, but he just looks like a bloke awkwardly waiting for his wife in a mundane setting. Only the self-portrait here depicting the artist working from a wheelchair is successful, due to its raw openness, but also so funnily self-aware.

Serene and minimalist … 8th April 2020, No. 2.

Experiments with Technology

Upstairs, the artist persists with his digital creations featuring lunar artworks; all dark and moody, large radiant spheres suspended over darkened scenery. They feel quiet, austere, maybe a little sad. I won’t hear any whingeing about his iPad work – people complain about the lack of texture and brush marks and humanity and yadda yadda yadda, yet in my view, they are impressive – an artist mastering modern tools, showing that whatever the medium, he preserves his distinctive artistic identity.

The Question of Prolificacy

However, is another Hockney show necessary? There have been more than 10 shows of his work in London recently, alongside a major retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris earlier this year, and this new exhibition isn’t even the last of it. Another significant event is planned for 2026, as well. I love Hockney, but even I think enough might just be enough.

And yet, I guess we should celebrate him while we can. Here, with all these new works with their imperfections, wit, and vibrancy, he’s just proving that he’s still at it, and he’s still got it, all these years later.