Tate Britain to mark Hockney's birthday with exhibition

To celebrate Bradford-born artist David Hockney's 80th birthday next year, the Tate Britain will put on special exhibition of his work.

The public display of Hockney's art will open next February and will showcase his achievements in painting, drawing, print, photography and video.

The Tate Britain is regarded as Britain's most famous art gallery Credit: PA

The 2017 show will be one of the Tate's biggest exhibitions and the largest retrospective of Hockney's work for around 30 years, the gallery said.

It will span six decades - from Hockney's first appearance on the public stage as a student in 1961, to work produced since the Bradford-born artist returned to California in 2013.

David Hockney sits in front of his work entitled The Chairs Credit: PA

It will feature early work such as the Love paintings (1960 and 1961), portraits of family and friends and self-portraits, and range from the sunshine and swimming pools of California to the Yorkshire landscape that caught Hockney's imagination as a teenager.

Famed for embracing change and new technologies, the chronological overview will aim to show "how the roots of each new direction lay in the work that came before".

Hockney is considered to be Britain's greatest living artist Credit: PA