Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Arts Project: early days

摘要

Dotted through this week's journal are reproductions of works from the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Arts Project. Opened in 1993, the hospital resembles a modern art gallery adorning the capital of some oil rich state. Brochures describing the hospital bristle with superlatives: the transparent plastic roof "covers the world's largest naturally ventilated atrium," an area even larger than Wembley Stadium. In this atrium the exhibits genuinely seem bigger and bolder than those from more modest establishments. Sculptures soar 18 metres into the air; mobiles and banners twist and flutter from their mountings five storeys up. Enormous canvasses have enough space to breathe. The pieces have been selected with flair, good artistic judgment, and what looks like bags of cash.