A GIANT David Hockney painting is expected to smash the previous record price for his work the when it is auctioned in New York next month.

Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica (pictured above, courtesy Sotheby's) was painted in 1990 and depicts the Bradford-born artist's daily commute to his studio in Los Angeles.

The 10-foot-wide landscape goes on sale at Sotheby's on May 16 and is expected to fetch between $20 million and $30 million.

David Galperin, head of Sotheby's contemporary art evening auction, called the picture an "exuberant monumental landscape".

He added: "David Hockney’s ‘Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica’ is a true triumph of his singular vision: a panoramic and kaleidoscopic paean to his adopted hometown. We eagerly anticipate setting a new bar for the artist at auction on the 16th with one of the most well-known paintings of his beloved California."

The current record price for a Hockney work is $11.7 million for Woldgate Woods, an autumnal scene in East Yorkshire which sold in 2016.

Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica depicts a drive that the artist took with friends daily but was painted from memory.

It was featured in the recent Tate Britain retrospective of the Bradford-born painter and printmaker.

The 10ft wide canvas "encapsulates Los Angeles's bright sunlight and bold colours, the very characteristics that drew Hockney away from the grey skies of London," Sotheby's said.

It was painted as Hockney's peers proclaimed the death of painting and instead turned to photography and conceptual art.

Hockney's autobiography That's The Way I See It features the work on the back cover.

The Contemporary Art Evening Auction takes place at Sotheby's in New York on May 16.