David Hockney: The Moon Room

In the spring of 2020, David Hockney was inspired by the sight of an unusually large moon—a supermoon, occurring when the moon is closest to Earth. Recalling the moment, the artist reflected on the challenge of capturing the experience through photography, emphasizing drawing's unique ability to convey the intensity of perception: "I was looking at the moon for quite a while, and when you do that, you see this halo around it that you don't see in photographs at all because it's too far. That's an example of the way lenses push things away. In a lens view, it would be disappointingly small... My niece said that she tried to photograph a big moon, and I said, 'Well, no, you have to draw it, like the sunrise. It can't be photographed because it is the source of light.'" GRAY announces David Hockney: The Moon Room opening in the gallery's Chicago location on July 10, 2026. The exhibition centers on a recently released series focused on the artist's observations of the moon. Created in 2020 at his Normandy studio in France, Hockney used his iPad to make daily paintings of the surrounding landscape, working en plein air to capture the changing seasons as illuminated by moonlight. Hockney turned to the iPad for its immediacy and responsiveness, a medium that bridges the disciplines of painting and drawing while accommodating the spontaneity of working outdoors, especially in the dark. The exhibition will remain on view through August 22, 2026. This is Hockney's sixteenth exhibition with GRAY.