Alice Woodhouse is the Collection Coordinator at Paintings in Hospitals and a freelance curator. Here, Alice highlights the diverse range of artworks in the Paintings in Hospitals collection, focussing on our sculptural works, recently photographed for Art UK's pioneering Sculpture Project...

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Art in hospitals is incredibly diverse. And, as follows, so is its sculpture. The expanded practice of modern and contemporary sculptors can be found in hospitals: from Studio Weave’s Lullaby Factory at GOSH; Laura Ford’s Patient Patients at Southmead Hospital; Eduardo Paolozzi’s The Healing Arts Collection Box at Chelsea and Westminster; Andrew Smith’s Lollypop Be-bop – with intervention by Cormac Seachov – at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children; Cornelia Parker’s Still Life with Reflection at St Bart’s Breast Care; and Liliane Lijn’s Land Sea Light Koan at St Mary’s Hospital, Isle of Wight. I could go on, but to stress a point - there is much, much more than busts of historic surgeons.

Left: Jupp Dernbach-Mayen, Metal Construction. Right: Jupp Dernbach-Mayen, Metal Construction (detail). Part of the Paintings in Hospitals collection.

At Paintings in Hospitals, the nature (and name!) of the collection is such that sculptures were not in our founder Sheridan Russell’s initial collecting policy. But it didn’t take very long for that to change and the first work of sculpture was added to our collection in 1965, only 6 years after our founding. That work was Jupp Dernbach-Mayen’s Metal Construction.

Art UK rephotographing sculptures from the Paintings in Hospitals collection for inclusion in their groundbreaking Sculpture Project.

Dernbach-Mayen was working quite extensively in public art in the 60s, including the water fountains that were outside Centre Point by Tottenham Court Road tube station. In 2009 the fountains were removed due to Crossrail developments but have been gifted to the Architectural Association and are now installed at the Association’s rural school in Hooke Park, Dorset. Our sculpture has been on loan with the James Wigg Practice, London, and the Wexham Park Hospital, Berkshire - and this spring it was photographed alongside 20 other sculptures in our collection by Art UK’s Sculpture Project. I’m going to dwell on some of these sculptural works and their lives at Paintings in Hospitals:

Mark Cannon, 24 Hours, 1995. Part of the Paintings in Hospitals collection.

Mark Cannon’s 24 Hours, 1995 is 24 painted handless clocks. It was gifted to Paintings in Hospitals in 2002 by the Saatchi Gallery and has been loaned to various London hospitals ever since. It has been at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, The Health Foundation, St George’s University Hospital and is currently on display in the main reception area at City & Hackney Therapeutic Community Outreach Service. The work is a bright and interesting meditation on time, fitting its waiting room setting well.

Norie Hatakeyama, Connection I, 1996. Part of the Paintings in Hospitals collection.

Norie Hatakeyama’s Connection I, 1996 is an intricate organic shape made of woven paper fibres. The work has been on loan at Prior's Court School and has been selected for multiple exhibitions by our student curators as part of our three-year-long Art in Large Doses project with Central Saint Martins. Donated by Dame Stephanie Shirley, this artwork is part of our dedicated Art and People with Autism loan programme. This programme was specifically curated from the collection following a detailed evaluation project with Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art, which created a set of 17 non-prescriptive principles to consider, inform and guide when choosing artworks with and for people with autism.

Gerald Laing, Explanation of Arch Screen, 1967. Part of the Paintings in Hospitals collection.

Gerald Laing’s Explanation of Arch Screen, 1967 is a small abstract work. It was created amid Laing’s abstract sculptural phase from 1965-69 which intersected with his inclusion in the iconic 1966 Primary Structures exhibition at the Jewish Museum, New York, curated by Kynaston McShine, which showcased some of the new ‘Minimalist’ art of the 60s. We have another of Laing’s small sculptural works Print from 1966. This work has been on loan at Prior’s Court School and at the Horfield Health Centre, where it has been since 2016.

Felicity Aylieff, Indian Leaf, 1999. Part of the Paintings in Hospitals collection.

Felicity Aylieff’s Indian Leaf, 1999 is a large curving leaf carved from speckled stone. Although not as hugely monumental in scale as Aylieff’s most recent work, Indian Leaf is a beautiful example of the utmost care with which she explores form and surface texture.

Left: Edward Dutkiewicz, Untitled. Right: Edward Dutkiewicz, Untitled. Part of the Paintings in Hospitals collection.

Edward Dutkiewicz’s Untitled are part of the artists’ studio bequest to Paintings in Hospitals. Dutkiewicz wished for his works to brighten people’s lives and his extensive representation in our collection ensures his request is honoured. To name just a few locations where his works have been enjoyed: Royal Marsden Hospital, the Centre for Health and Wellbeing, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Burnley General Hospital, Chitra Sethia Autism Centre, Great Western Hospital - and we have these four snakes on display in our London office.

Left: Edward Dutkiewicz, Untitled. Right: Edward Dutkiewicz, Untitled (detail). Part of the Paintings in Hospitals collection.

Bronze, plastic, figurative, abstract, ceramic, paper, glass, wood, steel, enamel, marble - the 73 sculptures in the Paintings in Hospitals collection represent just a small part of the breadth of modern sculpture. As we look forward to the next 60 years, the diversity and co-curating approach of Paintings in Hospitals’ collection and programme, and that of arts-in-health generally, will hopefully only grow, sustaining the rightful place that sculpture has in public art.

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Alice Woodhouse is Collection Coordinator at Paintings in Hospitals. She is also Art Collection Manager for Vital Arts and a freelance curator. She has a BA in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art, and an MA in Culture, Criticism & Curation from Central Saint Martins.