Installation view of Aliza Nisenbaum Team Time Storytelling, Alder Hey Children's Hospital Emergency Department COVID Pandemic 2020.
Photo: Gareth Jones
Tate presents portrait of NHS workers to Alder Hey Children's Hospital
Today, Tate has presented a painting to Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool depicting its staff who continued working on the frontlines during the Covid-19 pandemic. The group portrait was created by New York-based artist Aliza Nisenbaum (b. 1977, Mexico) to celebrate NHS key workers’ achievements during this difficult period. The painting was originally one of 20 portraits commissioned by Tate Liverpool and shown at the gallery in 2021 to great acclaim. Such was the impact of the commission, the gallery felt its home ought to be at the hospital and it is fittingly being presented at Alder Hey ahead of the NHS’s 75th anniversary celebrations.
The painting, Team Time Storytelling, Alder Hey Children's Hospital Emergency Department, Covid Pandemic, 2020 shows a group of staff members who had been using reflective practices, focused on the mental health and well-being of medical teams working in traumatic situations as a means of sharing emotional responses to situations at work. The people depicted represent a broad range of roles, including administrative staff, nurses, porters, doctors and more.
The artist was due to undertake a residency in Liverpool in spring 2020 but, due to the pandemic, adapted her practice, working with her sitters remotely, using video technology to develop a bond with her participants and paint them from real life. For this painting, Nisenbaum asked each person to make a drawing about their workplace experiences during the pandemic – a practice that hospital staff use with children to help communicate their emotions – and these are included within the final image.
Both Tate and Aliza Nisenbaum felt it was appropriate that the group portrait should hang in the hospital as tribute to the inspiring work of the Alder Hey staff and to launch it in time for the 75th birthday of the NHS as a celebration of all staff across the service.
Helen Legg, Director, Tate Liverpool, said: “Tate is proud to be able to unveil Aliza Nisenbaum’s painting at Alder Hey – a rare example of an artwork from the national collection on view to the public in a non-arts setting. Aliza’s image of NHS frontline workers during the pandemic moved everyone who saw it. Seeing it on display again is an acknowledgement of the value of our NHS as it celebrates its 75th anniversary and is a tribute to those who care for us.”
Louise Shepherd CBE, Chief Executive of Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “There is much to be proud of as we approach the 75th birthday of the NHS and this artwork is a valuable reminder of the outstanding dedication of our staff during the recent pandemic. The unveiling of this stunning painting at Alder Hey is a huge honour and is testament to the fantastic support Tate Liverpool has given to our Arts for Health Programme for twenty years. We have delivered some incredible collaborative programmes during that time and I look forward to us together bringing further benefits to our children and young people in the future.”
Alder Hey and Tate Liverpool have a long-standing relationship spanning twenty years. Alder Hey runs a dynamic Arts for Health Programme which has been at the forefront of pioneering approaches to using the Arts in children's healthcare. The hospital has collaborated with Tate Liverpool many times on programmes to benefit children and young people in their care. It is hoped that the presence of Nisenbaum’s evocative group portrait will act as a catalyst and inspiration to staff and patients in their Arts Programme.
- For press information contact dominic.beaumont@tate.org.uk or call 07969 592950
- High resolution press images can be downloaded from Dropbox.
Aliza Nisenbaum Team Time Storytelling, Alder Hey Children's Hospital Emergency Department, Covid Pandemic, 2020 Tate is a promised gift of The Rennie Foundation, Vancouver, Canada (Tate Americas Foundation) 2021.
Nisenbaum started her career as an abstract painter but began painting people during a residency at fellow artist Tania Bruguera’s community space, Immigrant Movement International in Queens, New York. Teaching English through feminist art history and the politics of representation, Nisenbaum asked to paint her students outside of class to get to know them better. Believing that ‘paying attention can be a political act’, Nisenbaum spends hours with her sitters, painting them from life while developing a personal connection through ongoing dialogue to enable her to highlight their individuality.
Nisenbaum gained recognition when her work was included in the Whitney Biennial in 2017. She has had solo exhibitions at The Queens Museum, New York (2023), The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN (2017) and Anton Kern Gallery, New York (2019), in 2019 she completed a commission for the Art on the Underground, London. Her work was presented in group exhibitions at Gwangju Biennale, South Korea; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Phillips Collection, the Boston ICA; the Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City and Palais de Tokyo, Paris, amongst others. Her work is held in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Hirshhorn Museum, The Aishti Foundation, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business art collection, and the Irish Arts Council.