Commissioned artists include;
Darren Almond, Catherine Bertola, Kate Bright, Hannah Brown, Hannah Collins, Oona Culley, Anka Dabrowska, Susan Derges, Leo Fitzmaurice, Ilana Halperin, James Ireland, Sarah Jones, Valeria Nascimento, Simon Patterson, Sophy Rickett, Shan Valla and Richard Wentworth.
To view art map click here
Barts and The London NHS Trust is currently undergoing a major redevelopment programme. The Royal London will be Britain's biggest new hospital, with London's leading trauma and emergency care centre. It will include one of the UK's largest children's hospitals, as well as one of Europe's largest renal units. Barts will become a state-of-the-art Cancer and Cardiac Centre of Excellence, incorporating services currently provided at The London Chest Hospital.
Very often the choice of hospital art is rather bland but we found the art work that we saw on our recent tour of the Oncology Dept. very innovative and thought provoking. It made me want to explore the different corridors and floors just to see what original pieces were round the next corner. These artworks must catch the eye of the patients, distract and interest them.
Margaret Thorn. Student Nurse at Barts 1961 - 1965. Visited Barts during reunion of League of Nurses 10th September 2011
RAHERE ASSOCIATION COMMISSION
Richard Wentworth, The Light of Day, 2011
Digital prints antiqued mirror and nails
This artwork was made as part of a series of site-specific commissions that are informed and inspired by the long and distinguished history of Barts. For this commission, funded by the Rahere Association, Richard Wentworth was given access to the archives held by the Barts and the London NHS Trust. The photographs Wentworth used in this work show equipment, furniture and architecture from the hospital's illustrious past. They include views of the Pathology Museum, instruments for measuring radium, the manufacturing of ointment, and machines to extract radioactive gas. Even the image of filing cabinets, once intended to convey state-of-the-art information management, takes on an air of nostalgia today in our paperless electronic age. Similarly, Wentworth makes a feature of large metal nails which also signal a technology of a previous era.
These atmospheric images, with glimpses of parquet floors, glazed tiled walls, wooden balustrades (echoed in the heavy wooden frames surrounding each piece) impart a strong flavour of the history of Barts within the new building, while the inclusion of angled mirror suggests the idea of reflection back in time and into the future.
BARTS HISTORY COMMISSIONS
Other artists interested in mining the history of Barts are Catherine Bertola and Ilana Halperin, each of whom have been granted access to Barts' extensive archive collection to create work based on the imagery, stories and documents of the 900-year old hospital.
Catherine Bertola, From the Achives, 2010
Digitally printed acrylic and vinyl
This installation draws on the 18th century fashion for "print rooms", whereby a room was decorated with prints pasted directly onto the walls and embellished with drawings of swags, frames and ribbons to lend an illusion of three-dimensionality. This method of wall decoration enabled homeowners to produce their own personalised "wallpaper" with a collage of images that captured and reflected their own life, family, travels and history. Here, it serves as a link to the James Gibbs buildings, also from the 1700s, which form the historic square at the core of Barts. The images incorporated into this ‘Print Room' are all taken from the archive collection that documents the history of Barts, and bring into the new building some of the atmospheric images from the hospital's past.
Ilana Halperin, A Geological meeting between I.H and H.I.(An Archaeology of Barts), 2010
Watercolour, graphite on fabriano paper, etched caithness stone
The artist has a particular interest in geology, and she approached her commission for the Cancer Centre by creating a narrative visual "geological cross section" of the hospital's history. After consulting the archives held by Barts and the London NHS Trust, speaking to patients, and exploring the hospital's historical buildings - which include two magnificent Hogarth paintings - she excavated stories, objects and archival images. The initials in the title refer to the artist herself, I.H. and a former patient treated at Barts whose initials are H.I. Halperin has said about this artwork, "the intention is to create a warm interruption in the new hospital environment by installing a collection of related material about Barts that facilitate a space for potential discovery, and expeditions of the imagination."
FULLMOONS
Darren Almond, Fullmoon series
C-type print
Turner Prize nominee, Darren Almond, has created a photographic installation for the new Radiotherapy Department. Running throughout his work is a reflection on time, duration and memory. For these images, the artist has travelled far and wide to remote geographical areas. These pictures are taken in the middle of the night, using only the full moon as a source of light, and an extended time exposure on the camera film. Entitled Fullmoons, these meditative and evocative photographs are filled with a strange and frozen beauty that create an immersive environment for patients throughout the waiting area.
The art around here does not go amiss; there should be more of it. I am not an art aficionado at all but I think these artworks make a nice environment rather than the bare walls generally seen in hospitals. It is not pretentious, but it isn't just decoration either. The art works that I've seen installed on the ground floor and in the basement seem to bring in some light and give an indication of the outside world on the other side of the windowless walls. This art makes the area feel homely without forcing an impression.
Michael Fielding
Patient at Barts receiving Radiotherapy in 2011
LOOKING UP
Darren Almond, Susan Derges, Simon Patterson, Sophy Rickett
Digital prints on lightbox panels
Darren Almond has also made a lightbox artwork for the ceiling in an adjacent linac suite treatment room, along with Susan Derges, Simon Patterson and Sophy Rickett. Here, patients are urged to “look up” in the Radiotherapy Department with engaging artworks installed within light-boxes in the ceilings of each treatment areas. Patients receiving radiotherapy, will be distracted from their immediate concerns and transported by artworks, which include reconfigured celestial constellations, magical tree canopies and riverside wildflowers viewed by moonlight.
VIEW FROM BARTS
Hannah Collins, True Stories Barts, 2010
Digital prints
Acclaimed international artist Hannah Collins has completed a suite of photographic works made especially for Barts, and now installed in the ground floor reception of the Imaging Department. These panoramic images, taken from the roof of the building, each show a view north, east, south or west of the hospital. Along with landmark monuments, such as the Old Bailey, the London Eye, Smithfield Market, BT Tower, and the Barbican, Collins has also captured some of the more mundane structures in view. The artist's use of acid colours lends a sense of artifice, making the images seem staged and fictional, thus dramatising the familiar area directly outside the hospital. Collins who is also a filmmaker, considers these to be "like an opening sequence to a film each being the film of that day."
CALM IN CHEMO
Recently installed in the Chemotherapy Department are three new interrelated commissions that each explore light, shadow and reflection while striving to bring echoes of the natural world into the hospital. This ensemble of works, which includes glass, porcelain, gilding, and silver leaf brings a restrained elegance and calm to the department with transparent, white, or highly reflective surfaces throughout.
Shan Valla, Stems, 2010
Glass,silver gilt and porcelain
For the entrance of the Chemotherapy Department, Shan Valla has made a work of soaring glass branches. Nestled at the base of a mini forest of transparent and silver stems stand a pair of gilded porcelain birds.
Valeria Nascimento, Blossoming, 2010
Porcelain and gold leaf 
Porcelain and gold also appear around the corner, in an installation by Valeria Nascimento who is known for her delicate, graceful porcelain sculptures that seem to hover weightlessly. A large panel of her work, Blossoming, features a cluster of white paper-thin porcelain petals scattered across the wall. Nearby, smaller panels appear to have captured some of those petals - as if carried by the wind. A playful line of delicately tinted gold petals runs along this suite of smaller panels.
Oona Culley, Puddles and Reflections, 2010
Gloss paint and aluminium leaf
In the treatment areas, Oona Culley’s highly reflective wall-based work runs along several corridors. Puddles and Reflections, commissioned with the support of the Abbey Harris Mural Fund, presents abstracted images of rain puddles and their reflection of trees and foliage against the sky. The artist has employed a combination of glossy paint and silver leaf to incorporate real reflections of the surrounding light and space. The muted palette of greys and silvers, associated with rain, affords the work a calm and contemplative atmosphere.
COMPOSITE LANDSCAPES
James Ireland, A Scenic View of Mountains Reflected in a Lake, 2010
Found posters on diasec 
This work by James Ireland extends his interest in landscape, nature and artifice. The horizontal work stretches nearly seven meters across. It is a sequence of overlapping aluminium-mounted images each of a different unrelated picturesque view of nature.
James Ireland, Quiet Pleasures, 2011
Stainless steel, glass, vinyl print, quartz, pyrite
A second commission by Ireland is located in the waiting room in Radiotherapy. This site-specific installation attempts to increase the available light in this area by using highly reflective materials, such as mirrors, quartz crystals, and pyrite within a shiny metal framework. The natural rocks, along with the subtle colours of sunset cast over the white walls, form miniature three-dimensional landscapes that offer an engaging counterpoint to Darren Almond's photographic exploration of landscape.
WINTER WONDERLAND
Kate Bright, Winter Series, 2010
Glitter and acrylic on canvas 
Artist Kate Bright brings sparkle to Barts with a series of new paintings. Known for her abstracted landscape images sprinkled with a generous dose of glitter, Bright created a series of snow scenes that catch the light and animate the the lift lobby.
ROSE GARDEN
Sarah Jones, The Rose Garden - Barts Edition, 2010
Lambda prints on aluminium
Artist Sarah Jones has created a special edition of her acclaimed 'Rose Garden' series. The roses photographed in her works were found and photographed in situ at a municipal park in London. These formal displays offer colour and scent in an often grey urban environment, and strive to fulfil the local authority's remit to provide "nature" for local residents. By lighting the roses in such a way that they appear set against an inky, pitch black background, the artist imbues these familiar flowers - some in bloom, some past their peak - with a mysterious and magical quality.
STREET SCAPE
Anka Dabrowska, Kiosk Series, 2010
Recycled material, wallpaper and ink
Anka Dabrowska brings a bit of Warsaw to Barts with a series of newly commissioned kiosks, based on the vibrant street life of her native city. These tiny jewel-like constructions are made from scraps of packaging, photos and found material. Dense and richly layered - not unlike actual kiosks which tend to be tightly packed with an astonishing array of goods - these works demonstrate the artist's particular facility for improvised creativity.
READY MADE
Leo Fitzmaurice, Holiday brochure series, 2010
Drilled brochures
Like Anka Dabrowska, Leo Fitzmaurice also uses found materials readily at hand to create gently humourous artworks. The familiar is key to this artist, who transforms mundane, readily available material into lyrical artworks, such as these drilled holiday brochures, offering patients, staff and visitors a sense of momentary escape. He has made similar works with catalogues from Argos, Woolworths, and other well-known high street brands, rendering the everyday strangely familiar. For Barts, he has also made a series of cabinets filled with train-like objects. Closer inspection reveals that these are actually toothpaste packages which he has reconfigured, creating a fun and engaging way to look at everday, ubiuitous objects.
