Sensing Spaces: The History of Colour, Art and Care
19 Nov 2025, 17:30 - 19:00
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Join us for an online talk on the history of colour in twentieth-century British hospitals.
What are the colours of care? In this fascinating talk, Victoria Bates explores the history of colour in twentieth-century British hospitals, including the growing interest in hospital art in the post-war period. Delve into the sensory history of health care, and the links between art and healthcare environments and how the use of colour shaped the modern hospital. You can read more about the project here. Delving more deeply into art and mental health, Victoria Tischler will then focus on the life and work of self-taught artist Mary Barnes (1923-2001). Barnes trained as a nurse before experiencing a mental health crisis in mid-life. She became the first resident at Kingsley Hall, a therapeutic community established by the countercultural figure and critical psychiatrist Dr R D Laing in East London in 1965. There, guided by American psychoanalyst Dr Joseph Berke she began to paint on the walls using her fingers, inspired by her religious beliefs and her relationships with staff at the Hall. She recovered and dedicated much of her later life to creative practice and mental health activism. The use of art to promote mental wellbeing and Barnes' posthumous reception as a celebrated self-taught artist will be discussed. Victoria Bates is Associate Professor in Modern Medical History at the University of Bristol. She specialises in the social history of medicine and has published widely in the interdisciplinary medical humanities. Victoria Tischler is Professor of Behavioural Science at University of Surrey. Her research focusses on mental health, ageing, and creativity. Image: Mary Barnes: At the Well, oil on board, c/o Falkland Estate.
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