The Queen’s Window,
Westminster Abbey
David Hockney, 2018

In 2018, London’s Westminster Abbey was looking to commission a stained-glass window to commemorate the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. They chose David Hockney. Hockney is now considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, but his career has been a varied and controversial one.

Studying at the Royal College of Art just at the moment when the 1960s Pop Art movement was taking off, he has embraced a wide variety of styles and subjects in a long career and the cathedral’s choice may have seemed a risk. But Hockney chose the exuberant white froth of hawthorn blossom to celebrate the Queen’s love of nature and the countryside.

Using an iPad, he designed this vibrantly coloured scene from the Yorkshire Wolds. The Dean of Westminster welcomed its arrival, saying,

‘I didn’t want anything figurative or heraldic … This is not a commemoration, it is a celebration!’

Art in Focus is curated by Meryl Doney

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This is from an article published in the Issue 3 – 2025 edition of Reform

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