New works will mark 25 years of Tube art project

Three Women, a mural at Brixton tube station by Claudette Johnson, was created in 2024

Transport for London (TfL) says it hopes to "encourage meaningful conversations between artists and the public" with four new artworks that will be displayed across the Tube network in 2025.

The pieces are part of the Art on the Underground programme, which marks its 25th anniversary this year.

A work by Ahmet Öğüt will be unveiled at Stratford station in March, and a new pocket Tube map featuring a design by Agnes Denes, based on her work Map Projections, will be released in the spring.

In June a new audio commission by Rory Pilgrim will be heard by millions of commuters at Waterloo station, and in November a new painting by Rudy Loewe will become the ninth mural instalment at Brixton station.

'A response to London today'

Eleanor Pinfield, head of Art on the Underground, said the commissions were meant to "foreground interactions" with art in daily life.

She said: "Across 2025, the programme will interrogate how art can save us and what it means to gather together, in shared space and with local communities.

"Seen and heard by millions, the 2025 programme is a response to London today, whilst always reflecting on our past and possible futures."

Existing works in the programme include Alexandre da Cunha's kinetic sculpture at Battersea Power Station station and Mark Wallinger's Labyrinth across the London Underground network.

The first 2025 artwork - to be unveiled on 18 March at Stratford station - is a large-scale piece by artist Ahmet Öğüt called Saved by the Whale's Tail, Saved by Art.

Among the artists in the 2025 programme is Rory Pilgrim, who created this artwork entitled Pink and Green Visit the Prison

Mr Öğüt's new work was inspired by an incident in 2020 when a train on the Rotterdam Metro overran the stop blocks at a station on an elevated Metro line.

A carriage, at risk of falling into the water beneath, was "saved" by a 10m-high public art sculpture of a whale's tail, which prevented its fall.

TfL said: "This visual metaphor for the power of art to save lives provided the impetus for a project that seeks to uncover many more stories.

"Encompassing a major installation alongside a call out to the public for stories that champion, interrogate and celebrate how art has saved lives, the commission culminates in a prize for the most moving submission, for which Öğüt has created a sculpture akin to an award ceremony trophy to be awarded later in 2025."

Works that debuted as part of Art on the Underground in 2024 included:

• The permanent mosaic Angels of History by Quinlan and Hastings at St James's Park

• Three Women, a mural at Brixton tube station by Turner Prize nominee Claudette Johnson

• A Taste of Home, a series of artworks in the rotunda at Heathrow Terminal 4 Underground station by British artist and photographer Joy Gregory.