BAA Head Office Collection
Under the BAA Art Programme for their head office collection at Wilton Road, London, we were appointed to commission a series of artworks by emerging artists to reflect BAA’s core values, culture and public image.
Over the period of 1994-1998, we commissioned a number of works, from Sharon Ting’s multi-layered textile work for the Marketing Director’s office; Kate Blee’s richly pigmented dyed textiles; to Keith Roberts’ commission of an airside view of Heathrow Airport with the old control tower in the background for the Board Dining room; and Sandra Blow’s final designs for her monumental glass screen ‘Flight Structure’, conveying an abstracted marshalling and movement of planes at Heathrow Airport.
‘Sir Steve Redgrave’, Justin Mortimer
We were appointed by the River & Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames to deliver an artist brief for a portait commission of Olympic rower and world champion Sir Steve Redgrave for the museum’s main entrance.
Following a selection process, we commissioned Justin Mortimer who had recently earned extensive publicity with his portrait of Queen Elizabeth depicting her head floating away from her body against a yellow background. Mortimer spent time with Redgrave, shadowing his gruelling training regime. The painting is a study in concentration, will and commitment. By depicting the subject floating on the canvas, Mortimer glorifies the Olympic rower.
We commissioned ‘Sir Steve Redgrave’ in 1998 on behalf of the River & Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames and funded by the Edington Charitable Trust.
BAA Heathrow Terminal 3 Collection
Under the BAA Art Programme, we undertook a series of commissions in 1995 that formed part of the Heathrow Terminal 3 art collection. In close consultation with our clients, we identified the circulation spaces at Heathrow Terminal 3 that took business class passengers to the airline lounges as suitable sites for the commissions. With the majority of business travellers through T3 visiting London for business, it was decided that scenes of London would make the most appropriate theme.
Four young, emerging artists were invited to celebrate famous London landmarks. ‘Man Walking His Dog: Trafalgar Square’ by Guy Noble; ’The Epic and the Everyday’ by John Bartlett, a view of the City of London near St Paul’s Cathedral. For London’s markets, Soho, Portobello and Covent Garden we commissioned Haydn Cottam, while Jonathan Waller’s paintings depicted the quiet, calm leafy greenness of many of London’s parks and gardens with his ‘Queen Mary’s Garden: Regent’s Park’ and a typical summers day in ‘Hyde Park’.
‘Man Walking His Dog: Trafalgar Square’ by Guy Noble and ‘Hyde Park’ by Jonathan Waller have since been relocated to the Compass Centre, Heathrow’s head office and form part of the Heathrow Art Collection.