Rarely seen Quentin Blake art to go on show

Illustrations that have never been on public display before by Sir Quentin Blake, one of the country's most prolific and popular artists, are to go on show.

The Illustrated Hospital exhibition will take place at Moyse's Hall Museum, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, from 4 June until 6 October.

The pieces in the large collection were created to adorn the walls of hospitals and other healthcare facilities in the UK and France.

The museum said the exhibition would highlight its reputation for "punching way above its weight" after works by contemporary artists Bansky and Tracey Emin had helped to attract thousands of visitors.

Quentin Blake, photographed in 2020

Since 2005, the Cambridge University graduate's art produced for medical settings had "been a significant part of his work", organisers said.

His murals are displayed on a number of hospital walls, including Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.

"Because of their clinical function, many of the spaces are not easily accessible to visitors, so relatively few people - only patients and hospital staff - may get the chance to see them," the museum said.

Created in his "instantly recognisable style", the drawings feature swimming babies, helpful dragons, treetop adventures and poignant landscapes.

Sir Quentin is known for his collaborations with writers such as Russell Hoban, Michael Rosen and Roald Dahl.

In 1999 he was appointed the first children's laureate, and he was knighted in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Trousseau corridor picture #2 was created for a children's hospital just outside Paris in 2008

The work has been co-curated by Sir Quentin's team and the West Suffolk Council-run museum.

Organisers said it was one of Moyse's Hall's "most important exhibitions" and "further enhances the attraction’s growing reputation for punching way above its weight for a provincial museum".

There will be workshops for children, and Folksy Theatres' performance of Quentin Blake: Angelia Sprocket’s Pockets can be seen at West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village, near Bury St Edmunds, on Friday 9 August.

Life Under Water, for The Gordon Hospital, was created in 2009