No pussycats playing bridge

from ABC news:

Creepy art increases heart patients' blood pressure
Posted Jan 3, 2007

Works of art meant to hearten patients at a Canadian cardiac hospital as part of a study have been removed after complaints they made people feel tense and increased their blood pressure, a doctor says.
"The idea was to try to brighten up the place and make it alive," Dr Robert Roberts said, head of the Ottawa Heart Institute.
"But our choice of austere paintings instead increased our patients' blood pressure slightly.
"Most people who have a heart attack come here to feel better but the paintings made people feel tense and nurses noticed patients were more agitated while waiting to have their blood pressure tested."
The paintings used in the art therapy experiment, believed to be the first of its kind in Canada, included five portraits by artist Shirley Brown called The Queens.
Their "very piercing eyes were not necessarily the most pleasant thing to look at or cheer you up when you're in pain," Dr Roberts said.
They were removed.

Art therapist Sharon Mintz told public broadcaster CBC that art in hospitals should be safe.
"No pussycats playing bridge, dogs playing poker or Elvis on velvet," she said.
"But there are a lot more comfortable works of art, watercolours, softer pastels, something that will inspire relaxation in a situation like that."

The results of the study will be presented at the Society for the Arts in Healthcare conference in Tennessee in the US in April.