When the pandemic swept the planet, life froze as the shutters came down. And the same was true of the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery about David Hockney which was only open to the public for 20 days. Now, the London museum is reorganizing and enriching ‘David Hockney: Drawing from Life’ to include 33 new portraits by the artist, including a portrait of Harry Styles he created.

The portrait painted in the spring of 2022 by Hockney shows the pop singer sitting cross-legged in a wicker armchair. He wears a bright striped cardigan and a pearl necklace and with his famous hairstyle he is instantly recognizable (https://www.instagram.com/p/CvfjpBqhDVk/). Although the British painter, who rose to the stratosphere of fame during the Pop Art movement of the 1960s, was unaware of Styles’ fame while he posed for the painting, that has since changed. “However, now I know Harry is a celebrity: I’ve seen all his music videos,” Hockney told British Vogue.

Styles’ portrait will be accompanied by portraits of the painter’s family but also of other distinguished people in his life, such as his partner Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima, the mayor of the town near which he lives today and his neighbors in Normandy. In the series of portraits, five recurring figures: Hockney’s mother, his friend Celia Birtwell, his former partner and curator of exhibitions Gregory Evans, Maurice Payne (expert in creating copies of the painter’s works) and the artist himself.

With a total of almost 160 paintings and a special room dedicated to the works Hockney created during the pandemic, “David Hockney: Drawing from Life” is ready to open its doors again (November 2 to January 21, 2024). “The whole world rolled down the blinds, and the exhibit was sitting there in the dark. So it’s nice to know it’s going to have a new lease of life,” said Sarah Howgate, chief curator of contemporary collections at the museum.