Indian sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik has sculpted 100 Santa Claus figures on a beach in the tourist town of Puri.
The exhibition, which was opened by two foreign tourists last week, seeks to spread awareness about global warming.
Mr Patnaik has also sculpted Christmas trees with the message “Save the Earth from Global Warming”, to encourage people to give trees as gifts.
Hundreds of tourists and locals have been visiting the beach to see the unique display.
About 1,000 tonnes of sand and 36 hours of labour went into the creation of the sculpture.
Mr Patnaik was assisted by 20 students of the Golden Institute of Sand Art set up by him on Puri beach.
‘Humble effort’
“It is my humble effort to press home the dire need to go green to save the world from the menace of global warming,” Mr Patnaik told the BBC over telephone from Puri in eastern Orissa state.
Puri, 60km (37 miles) from the state capital, Bhubaneswar, is a major centre of Hindu pilgrimage and is the place where sand art originated in the 14th Century.
Around this time of year thousands of tourists from all over the world descend on Puri.
“That is what prompted me to think of this way of drawing attention to this global problem,” Mr Patnaik said.
The artist has won many prestigious global awards, including first prize in the world sand art championship in Germany earlier this year.
He won a place in the Limca Book of Records by creating the world’s tallest (25-foot) Santa Claus last year.
He has participated in nearly 40 international sand art championships and festivals.
Mr Patnaik has always chosen themes such as HIV-Aids, the bird flu outbreak in India, the tsunami disaster and conservation of the endangered Olive Ridley turtles.

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Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan might not see eye-to-eye, but there is a common thread existing between them –their love for painting.While Salman has also come out with a fashion line to help the needy through his Being Human foundation, Shah Rukh’s feats at art are no less ordinary. Shah Rukh first teamed up with MF Husain and painted a canvas during a ‘live’ effort. The painting was then auctioned by Bonhams of London. Next, he paid a tribute to the victims of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks by painting on a wall at Marine Lines. He has pledged support to any cause and initiative that moves him and says painting is certainly a way through which he can reach out to the masses.

“For me painting is like a hobby and it feels good when you do something like this to help people or spread a message. I am a silent philanthropist and I will continue to be so,” says Shah Rukh.

For Salman it’s ‘not a hobby but a passion’. “I have always painted when my heart has told me to. Since I know a particular art which is over and above acting, I should dedicate it to charity to help people who are less fortunate than us,” he says.

Salman adds, “Through Being Human I have interacted with a lot of needy people. I have been moved by those interactions. Though I earn crores through my movies, my paintings and Being Human initiatives make me most happy. We all have social responsibilities and I’m only trying to do my part.”

Salman Khan being an avid painter is a fact that’s now as old as the hills. The brawny actor is known to even gift his exquisite paintings to those whom he considers truly special. The latest person to benefit from Salman’s generosity and love is none other than Aamir Khan

Aamir’s performance in Ghajini has surely caught Salman’s fancy. Now one will have to wait and watch if it manages to impress the janta-janardhan when the film opens across cinema halls this Christmas.

Asin unveils the Ghajini paintings made by Salman Khan

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Here’s an interesting photographic exhibition that looks at gender bastions and the transgressions of them. Four photographers, namely Sanjiv Valsan, Aparna Jayakumar, Poulomi Basu and Meghanad Ganpule capture the essence of varied situations in their natural settings.

Inside/Out explores the mosaic of intimate and public spaces. For instance, Meghanad explores the confines of men’s compartment in trains, Sanjiv checks out the eunuch prostitutes of Kamathipura, Aparna’s images speak of the bold women who dare to transgress into supposedly men’s professions and Poulomi’s photographs capture women in the presence of other women.

A striking photograph of a eunuch in the infamous red-light Kamathipura district exudes a ghostly feeling. “I had taken these photographs a few years ago when I was on an assignment and was invited to some of their homes. So you can see that their body language is very comfortable. I really wish the person in the photograph sees the picture and connects with me,” says Sanjiv wistfully.

The eunuchs seem happy to face the camera, maybe it’s got something to do with the fact that since they have already transgressed the gender rules they don’t have a reason to be coy anymore.

“The images of eunuchs negotiating with mill workers bring out the complication of gender within a prism. Another section of Sanjiv’s work deals with the glamourised posters of B-grade Bollywood flicks like Meri Takat, Khoon, Pasena etc, which are macho words that men like to associate themselves with –thereby bringing to the fore the masculinity of
the situation,” says Georgina Maddox, curator of the exhibition.

Aparna having travelled a great deal gets in a global perspective. One image captures a woman butcher amidst her work surroundings. It shows off a confident woman being herself in a mostly ‘male-identified’ occupation. “This photo aptly depicts urban drama being played out, while it dislodges the usual gender equation,” adds Georgina.

Holland, also known as the Netherlands, showcases more art and culture per square kilometre than any other country on earth. To highlight this, the four largest cities in Holland will be taking part in a large-scale art and cultural event called “Holland Art Cities” until early 2011. The top 10 museums in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht will join forces to put together an unprecedented art spectacle.Some of the most beautiful museums in the world are located within only an hour’s travel of one another in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. During Holland Art Cities, the cities will be inundated with art and culture. Cultural organisations and the top 10 museums from the Netherlands cooperated to schedule a cultural calendar of the highest quality. The programme, which consists of over 25 exhibitions, is a must for art lovers.

Hermitage Amsterdam, with exhibitions from the extensive art collection of the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, opened its doors to the public in spring 2009. The Hermitage Amsterdam is now located in a building with a surface of over 4000 square metres. The museum will host the exhibition “Pioneers of Modern Art” from March 6, 2010 to September 17, 2010. It presents one of the finest collections of French paintings from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. This collection includes outstanding paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Van Dongen, De Vlaminck and Derain to name just a few.The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam reopens its doors in early 2010. The historic building will have been completely renovated and expanded with an extensive new wing as well as a new main entrance. The new Stedelijk Museum will be a classic museum with a contemporary platform. In addition to a spectacular presentation of the collection in the original museum building, contemporary trends will be a focal point of the new section.

Several themes play an important role in the Holland Art Cities programme. Special exhibitions around the theme “Young: Modern and Contemporary Art and Design” will be held until mid-2010. The Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, for example, presents the first major solo exhibition of former fashion designer Michael Raedecker.

Dutch Masters, such as Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Vermeer are in the spotlight from July 2010 to June 2011. The paintings of these artists originate from the Dutch golden age, a period spanning the 17th century during which the Netherlands was the most prosperous nation in Europe. Paintings of Dutch Masters show characteristics of baroque painting, but most lack the idealisation and love of splendour typical of much Baroque work.

Seven museums in three cities put together special exhibitions featuring Dutch Masters. The Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis in The Hague will show Old Masters from a private US collection. The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has a major retrospective on Marlene Dumas. The Centraal Museum Utrecht presents works of art by the 17th-century painter Abraham Bloemaert.

The holiday season is also the high season for the performing arts – if you’re the type of person who goes to see one ballet a year, it’s a very good bet that ballet is “The Nutcracker,” especially if you are a parent.

The rest of the year, we often think about getting off the couch for some cultural enrichment, but then Bravo puts on a “Top Chef” marathon and, well, there’s always next week.

But not this year. It’s time to turn on the TiVo and go out to experience art, live music, theater and dance. It’s not just good for your brain, it’s fun, too.

1. See a Pulitzer Prize-winning play: Tracy Letts won the prestigious literary award for “August: Osage County,” his 3 1/2-hour family drama. Sound ponderous? Well, it’s not. Starring Estelle Parsons as a pill-popping Oklahoma matriarch, “Osage County” is a wickedly funny roller coaster that bowled over Broadway and is now wowing audiences on tour. Jan. 5-10 at ASU Gammage, Mill Avenue and Apache Boulevard, Tempe. $19.75-$63. 480-965-3434, asugammage.com.

2. Visit the world-renowned Heard Museum: Like the Grand Canyon, it’s a popular tourist attraction that Arizona residents often never get around to visiting. Devoted to Native cultures of the Southwest and around the world, it features both archeological objects and contemporary art. For example, coming in April is “pop! Popular Culture in American Indian Art.” Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. 2301 N. Central Ave., Phoenix. $12 (discounts for seniors and kids). 602-252-8848, heard.org.

3. See a show at the historic Orpheum Theatre: Built in 1929, the wonderfully kitschy architectural landmark, complete with gargoyles, was renovated in 1997 and now hosts concerts, theater and dance. Next up: Comic musician Stephen Lynch on Jan. 8. 203 W. Adams St., Phoenix. $29.50 (plus fees). 602-262-7272, ticketmaster.com.

4. Support local music: A bit old to hit the clubs in search of the next breakout rock band from the Valley? Then sit back with a beer and salute the latest class of inductees to the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame: Long John Hunter, Scotty Spenner and Big Nick and the Gila Monsters. Performers include Chuck Hall and Hans Olson. Jan. 10 at the Rhythm Room, 1019 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. $10 suggested donation. 602-265-4842, rhythmroom.com, azblueshof.com.

5. Support Arizona playwrights: Theatre Artists Studio, an artist-run co-op, is committed to nurturing the talents of local actors, directors and writers. Next up it presents the world premiere of Micki Shelton’s “Medea’s Ghost,” a drama about two women connecting from opposite sides of prison bars. Jan. 29-Feb. 13 at 4848 E. Cactus Road, Suite 406, Scottsdale. 602-765-0120, thestudiophx.org.

6. Buy local art: You don’t have to be a millionaire to collect art. Help jump-start the local economy by finding affordable paintings from the diverse artists who show during First Fridays, downtown Phoenix’s free self-guided galley tour. 6-10 p.m. Jan. 1. artlinkphoenix.com.

7. Introduce your kid to theater: There’s something magical about live theater. For proof, just watch the faces of the kids who see shows from Childsplay, Tempe’s acclaimed professional troupe for young audiences. The company’s musical “Peter and the Wolf” toured venues around the national late last year and soon comes home for a run. Jan. 30-March 13 at the Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 W. Rio Salado Blvd. $20-$25. 480-350-2822, childsplayaz.org.

8. Introduce yourself to opera: It’s the epitome of “culture” that often seems intimidating. But if any opera will convert you, it’s the gorgeous “La Boheme” (which inspired Broadway’s “Rent” – how’s that for cool?). Arizona Opera’s production runs Jan. 29-31 at Symphony Hall, 75 N. Second St., Phoenix. $29-$130. 602-266-7464, azopera.org.

9. Give modern dance a chance: Another intimidating genre. But even if you’re not ready for the pioneering Martha Graham Dance Company, at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts in March, you are sure to get a kick out of it when the same venue hosts “The Best of MOMIX,” a retrospective by the whimsically inventive company that tends toward the Cirque du Soleil side of visual spectacle. Jan. 21-22 at 7380 E. Second St. $47. 480-994-2787, scottsdaleperformingarts.org.

10. Get in touch with your inner artist: Art isn’t just for seeing and hearing, it’s for doing. One of the best places to get your hands dirty, figuratively or literally, is the studios at Mesa Arts Center, 1 E. Main St., which offer classes in dance, acting, ceramics and more

Tags: artist, indian art, indian art blog, paintings

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) — A chalk drawing by the Renaissance painter Raphael that sold for $47.5 million topped auction sales in 2009, beating a Matisse still life of cowslips that made an artist record of $45.6 million.

Elsewhere, an Andy Warhol painting of dollar bills fetched $43.8 million, a Rembrandt portrait reached $32.9 million and an Art Deco chair owned by Yves Saint Laurent took $28 million (in dollar prices or equivalent at the time of the sale).

Collectors responded to the financial crisis by selecting the best 20th-century classics, Old Masters, wine and jewelry at international auctions. They shunned investment in some contemporary art as prices dropped by half and sales fell 75 percent. Private transactions increased as sellers at public auctions were no longer guaranteed minimum prices in 2009.

Here are some of the key moments of the year:

Feb. 5: Sotheby’s London sale tallied 17.9 million pounds (then $26.15 million), the lowest at its Part I contemporary auctions in the city since 2005. On Feb. 11, Christie’s International failed to sell Francis Bacon and Mark Rothkoworks that it expected would fetch as much as 5 million pounds and 3.5 million pounds.

Feb. 23-25: Christie’s raised 342.5 million euros (then $435.8 million) from the collection of the late fashion designer Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge. The total was the highest at auction of a private art collection, and defied economic gloom, said dealers. It would have been higher had Cai Mingchao, the Chinese winning bidder on two Qing dynasty bronzes, not refused to pay his bill of 31.4 million euros.

The Matisse 1911 cowslips still life “Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose” made 35.9 million euros, paid in the room by the New York-based dealer Franck Giraud. Records were set for other modern artists Brancusi (29.2 million euros) and Mondrian (21.6 million euros), while the Eileen Gray airchair made 21.9 million euros, a record for any piece of 20th-century design and more than 10 times its low estimate.

April 30: An aluminum “Lockheed Lounge” chair by Marc Newson sold at Phillips de Pury & Co. in London for 1.1 million pounds, an auction record for contemporary design. Pieces by Zaha Hadid and Ron Arad failed to sell.

May 13: David Hockney’s portrait of philanthropist Betty Freeman fetched $7.9 million at Christie’s New York, setting an auction record for the 72-year-old artist.

Christie’s $93.7 million evening tally represented a 73 percent decline from May 2008. The previous evening, its rival Sotheby’s took $47 million, down 87 percent from the $362 million auction a year earlier when a single painting –Bacon’s 1976 triptych — fetched $86.3 million.

June 10: Dealers reported revived demand for contemporary works at the Art Basel fair in Switzerland. A diamond-encrusted sculpture by Takashi Murakamisold for $2 million at the VIP preview. While visiting the fair, Los Angeles-based collector Eli Broad said a decline in contemporary-art prices had “leveled out.”

July: The financier J. Ezra Merkin, sued by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo over his role as a provider of client funds to convicted money managerBernard Madoff, privately sold Rothko paintings and other artworks that had been frozen in the litigation for $310 million.

The Rothkos will go on view in Moscow’s Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, owned by billionaire Roman Abramovich’s partner Dasha Zhukova in spring 2010.

October: A new “Leonardo da Vinci” drawing was announced. A chalk, pen and ink drawing of a girl in profile, sold at auction for $19,000 in the late 1990s, was examined by the Montreal-based forensic expert, Peter Paul Biro, who found a fingerprint corresponding to one on Leonardo’s painting “St. Jerome.” It was valued at 100 million pounds by London-based dealer Simon Dickinson. Discreet approaches have been made to a number of prospective buyers by its owner, Paris-based trader Peter Silverman, said dealers. Silverman could not be contacted for comment.

Nov. 11: Warhol’s painting of 200 one-dollar bills fetched $43.8 million at Sotheby’s in New York. The seller, London- based collector Pauline Karpidas, paid $385,000 for the work in 1986. The 1962 silkscreen was temptingly estimated at $8 million to $12 million and topped contemporary-art auctions that marked a return of confidence among both sellers and buyers, said dealers.

November: Shanghai-based collector Liu Yiqian paid about 170 million yuan ($25 million) at Poly International Auction Co. in Beijing for a Ming Dynasty scroll by Wu Bin, a record for a Chinese painting. It was one of the high prices paid in 2009 by mainland buyers for pieces with Imperial connections.

Dec. 1: A ring with a 5-carat pink diamond sold for a record HK$83.5 million ($10.8 million) at Christie’s Hong Kong. During the sales, Christie’s sold HK$40 million of wine, including a 78-bottle lot of 1999 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, which fetched HK$1.44 million.

Dec. 8: A drawing in black chalk by Raphael sold at Christie’s London for 29.2 million pounds, an auction record for any work of art on paper. The work had been entered by the heirs of the British collector Norman Colville, with a low estimate of 12 million pounds. It was bought on the telephone, dealers said, by the U.S.-based collector Leon Black, chief executive of Apollo Global Management LLC and a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Earlier in the sale, Rembrandt’s 1658 canvas, “Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo,” sold for 20.2 million pounds to a telephone bidder later identified as Las Vegas casino developer Steve Wynn. The painting was sold by Johnson & Johnson heiress, Barbara Piasecka Johnson.

Tags: art paintings, indianartidead, old masters, Raphael’s

Through an odd fortuity, the Brooklyn Museum has mounted “James Tissot: ‘The Life of Christ’” at the same time as Robert Crumb’s illustrations to the Book of Genesis have arrived in bookshops across the nation. Nearly one and a quarter centuries separate the two artists, yet both undertook the extraordinary labor of illustrating their chosen biblical texts with several hundred painstakingly rendered images.There, however, the comparison ends. Mr. Crumb, best known for inventing such countercultural icons as Mr. Natural, has translated the first book of the Bible into the thickly inked language of his underground comics. He manages to rise to irreligion only in his depictions of Lot and his daughters—or, rather, they would be irreligious were it not for the fact that Mr. Crumb has accurately rendered the text. A few fundamentalists, it is true, have taken the bait, but the great majority of Americans have greeted his illustrations with that tepid respect they reserve for cultural artifacts that don’t really concern them directly.

Nothing reveals the drastic shift in societal consensus more than our collective indifference to Mr. Crumb or an earlier generation’s excitement and disquiet before the biblical watercolors of James Tissot, all 350 of which were purchased en masse by the Brooklyn Museum in 1900 and are now on view in their galleries. To see his largely sober, realist works today, one would be hard put to imagine why anyone was ever offended. And it is true that many of Tissot’s contemporaries, among them Zola, the Brothers Goncourt and Manet, viewed them as worthy examples of religious art. But many contemporaries professed to be scandalized by them, especially by their recounting the life of Christ in the language of realism.

Until he completed this project, Tissot (1836-1902), a native of Nantes in Brittany, was known primarily for his candy-box depictions of contemporary high society on the Continent and in England. But then, to the surprise of all his friends, he suddenly found religion in his late 40s and decided to tell the story of Christ’s passion in 350 illustrations. He conceived them not only in the realist style, but in the Orientalist idiom of Gérôme and Fromentin. The art of all three men is characterized by a militant positivism, a determination to describe the exotic East, and everything else, “as it really was.” But although many of Tissot’s contemporaries were realists and many more treated biblical subjects, none of them had merged the two strains of contemporary culture as aggressively as Tissot did in these watercolors.The guiding intellectual force behind the images was Ernest Renan, whose “Vie de Jésus” (1863), one of the most influential books of the 19th century, undertook to track down “the historical Jesus.” Renan wrote of him as though he were a historical figure no different from Isaac Newton or Louis XIV. The point of the book, and of Tissot’s watercolors, was not to diminish Christ, as critics of both men alleged, but rather to make him acceptable to that part of contemporary culture that could no longer accept Christ through the gauze of scriptural authority, that had to see him face to face.

In preparing for this great task, Tissot seemed like an athlete training for a marathon. He studied Scripture and read all the most recent historians on the subject. He even traveled extensively in the Holy Land (dressed at times like a native) and interviewed rabbis and Bedouins in order to understand Christ in the plentitude of his reality. We see, in the 350 paintings, all the favorite subjects of Western art over the previous 15 centuries: the Annunciation, Christ in the Garden, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, largely depicted in the visual language of downtown Jerusalem in the late 19th century.

Given all the effort, one would like to respond more positively to the results. But it is difficult to dispel the feeling that something about Tissot’s “Life of Christ” was very wrong from the start. You could begin with the medium itself: Whereas oil-painting is the medium of minute detail, watercolors lend themselves to a charming allusiveness and indeterminacy. Tissot seems hell-bent on extorting from this fragile medium a precision of detail it cannot render, or render well.The result, all too often, is a brittle and unlovely pedantry that is especially disappointing when we see in the flesh, at the Brooklyn Museum, what were originally intended as mass-produced illustrations. And precisely because these generally diminutive works are illustrations aspiring to the status of autonomous paintings, there is something disappointing in their often inattentive and unimaginative compositions—very different from the lilting, waltzing swerves of Tissot’s earlier and far more worldly depictions of the Parisian beau monde. All the magic and mysticism have been chased away, and in their place is a sunlit Jerusalem as prosaic as midtown Manhattan at rush hour.

Finally, an ineffaceable and unappealing odor of marketing hovers over these 350 watercolors. Starting in the 1890s, Tissot took them on tour around the continent and even in North America, where the locals each paid 25 cents for a peek at them. A costly book, reproducing all of the images together with the relevant text and learned commentary, promptly appeared in French and in English.

But the greatest coup of all was the sale of the entire series to the then-nascent Brooklyn Museum for the princely sum of $60,000, at the energetic instigation of John Singer Sargent. When the works went on view, they put the institution squarely on the cultural map. Hundreds of people attended each day, and one clergyman, the Rev. Lyman Abbott, said that “to look upon these pictures . . . is to come as near to living the Christ’s life as is permitted to any one living in this modern world.”

But the delight in these works proved to very short-lived. Soon after their purchase, they were dispatched to the vaults of the museum, where they were to remain, largely unseen, for most of the next century. And now they emerge into a vastly different world from the one they last inhabited. Some dazzle of virtuosity remains, but their principal charm consists in embodying a period style that vanished long ago.

Young Indian artist Raghava KK, (currently based in New York) has been invited to speak at the TED (technology, entertainment and design) conference that will be held in Long Beach, California, along with Bill Gates and Eve Ensler to address audiences from around the world. TED is a nonprofit organisation devoted to ‘ideas worth spreading’and since 1990 people from around the world share their unique and path-breaking ideas at this annual conference.At the conference which is scheduled for February 2010,Raghava will be talking about art and how it has given him the education and opportunity to learn about the world. He says, “Their selection process is undisclosed, but I am very glad that they chose me. I have not gone to any art school or college and have learnt my art by travelling around the world and seeing art all over.”

Raghava is specially known for incorporating cartoons into his works — the main feature of his quirky art works. A few months ago, Raghava, his wife, theirinfant son and dog decided to start a new chapter and moved to New York. Raghava says, “Nothing was planned, we had no house and I only vaguely knew that I would practice art, but that’s about it.” He adds, “Earlier I had taken off to visit Europe without any money or food. During my journey, I met lots of people, interacted with them, share my art with them and had a good experience. These experiences taught me a lot and this is exactly what I am going to talk about at TED.”

Raghava’s experiences of moving to America are translated in his art works that can be viewed at Gallery Musings in the exhibition titled Brooklyn Bound R Train till January 20.

It is 150 years since Florence Nightingale lit upon a brilliant observation about the power of images. The tireless healer scribbled in her Notes on Nursing in 1859 that “the variety of form and brilliancy of colour in the objects presented to patients have a physical effect and are actual means of recovery”. A century and a half on hospitals are, by medical and technological standards, worlds apart from those that Nightingale would have known.
In terms of “variety of form”, however, very little has changed. She would probably feel quite at home marching between the anaemic walls in most of today’s wards.

But one charity, which has spent decades quietly shuffling artworks into busy hospitals, is beginning to change this.
Paintings in Hospitals, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this week, is devoted to reforming the health system’s attitude towards the benefits of exhibiting art. They loan works from their collection of over 4,800 pieces to hospitals and hospices around the country, and organise a yearly artists’ residency programme in a hospital ward.
Their task is vast, and routinely comes up against the debate: if a hospital has money to spend, wouldn’t it be better spent on life-saving equipment than on pretty pictures? However, against the odds, and with the staunch backing of an impressive team of supporters (big names in the art world contribute regularly to their fundraising auctions, and the Prince of Wales visited their collection at the military hospital Selly Oak in Birmingham on Tuesday to show his support) the charity has survived, and is beginning to see remarkable signs of its influence spreading.
Director Stuart Davie says: “Some hospitals have begun to return the works we’ve loaned them, because they’ve been able to start collecting for and curating their own spaces. In 10 years many more hospitals will be fostering their own art departments.”
The secret to the charity’s success lies in their elegant and considered collection, so if you’re thinking “Oh, I bet it’s all pansies, bears and balloons”, then you’re wrong. Their market-friendly collection includes works by Mary Fedden, Bridget Riley, and Richard Long, and they’ve even received a generous contribution of contemporary art from Charles Saatchi.
“Hospitals should think of the art as an investment,” says Davie. “Research shows that there is, on average, a one-day reduction in the length of stay when patients are exposed to art simply because it makes them – and their staff – feel better.”
The research he mentions was conducted at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital between 1998 and 2002, and it did produce some extraordinary findings about how images alleviate pain; the duration of labour, for example, was on average 2.1 hours shorter when women gave birth in front of a decorative artwork that distracted attention from the medical equipment in the delivery room.
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, with its own collection of more than 1,000 art objects, is the queen bee of artistic hospitals – “our goal is to make other organisations like theirs,” says Davie. The airy open space in the centre of the hospital, with tall sculptures, a water feature, a tapestry and colourful murals that span three storeys, is so uplifting – particularly during their weekly live Thursday lunchtime concerts – that you feel you could fly a kite. Only small giveaway signs reveal that it’s a hospital: a man combs his wife’s hair, half the listeners are wearing slippers.
Greta Trevers, who was recently discharged from the hospital, comes back for regular check-ups, and stays for afternoon tea in the hospital café next to The Acrobat, a colossal piece of curved profiled steel by Allen Jones, thought to be the largest indoor sculpture in Europe. “I always sit here because I love seeing children’s eyes light up as they walk past it,” she says.
She knows the hospital’s entire collection by heart, from the Paolozzi prints, the mobile of fish at the top of the building, and the jewel in the crown: Veronese’s Renaissance masterpiece The Resurrection, which adorns the hospital chapel.
“When I stayed in here I would visit a different floor every day, just to see the art,” says Trevers.
The real reward of the work of the charity is in the story-telling and the small interactions that offer moments of escapism. If it can in any way alleviate the loneliness of a Christmas spent in a hospital ward, at least for some patients and staff, it’s got to be worth its weight in gold.

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