Can Looking at Art Really Reduce Stress?

What if one of the simplest ways to take a break from a stressful workday was to stop looking at your screen and look at a painting instead?

For people working in IT, finance, consulting, design or any screen-heavy profession, this might sound almost too simple. The workday can move from one meeting to another, with emails, deadlines, spreadsheets, code and notifications competing for attention. Taking a few quiet minutes to look at art may not seem particularly productive.

But perhaps that is exactly the point.

A growing body of research suggests that viewing art can influence how we feel and, importantly, how our bodies respond to stress. The evidence is still developing, but some recent findings are difficult to ignore.

What Happens When We Look at Art?

In October 2025, Art Fund published findings from a study conducted by researchers at King's College London. The research looked at how people physically responded while viewing original artworks compared with reproductions.

Fifty volunteers aged 18 to 40 took part in the study. One group viewed original paintings at The Courtauld Gallery in London, including works by artists such as Manet, Van Gogh and Gauguin. Another group viewed high-quality reproductions of the same works in a non-gallery setting. Researchers monitored several physiological measures, including cortisol, heart activity and inflammatory markers.

The results were striking.

Among participants who viewed the original artworks, cortisol levels fell by an average of 22%. The group viewing reproductions also showed a reduction, but it was smaller, at around 8%. The original-art group also showed reductions of approximately 30% in IL-6 and 28% in TNF-α, inflammatory markers associated with stress and a range of health conditions.

There was another interesting finding: participants did not simply become calmer. Their bodies also showed signs of engagement and excitement, including changes in heart activity and skin temperature.

In other words, the response to art was not simply about becoming relaxed. Art appeared to engage the body while also helping regulate stress.

Why Might Art Have This Effect?

There is no single answer yet.

Researchers have proposed that viewing art can work as a form of positive distraction. Instead of continuously responding to demands around us, attention shifts towards something visual, unfamiliar and open to interpretation.

A 2021 scoping review published in BMJ Open examined 14 studies on viewing visual artworks and stress. Thirteen of the 14 studies that measured self-reported stress found reductions after participants viewed artworks. All four studies that examined systolic blood pressure also reported reductions.

The researchers were careful, however, not to present this as settled science. The studies varied considerably in their methods, settings, participants and types of artwork. Only four were randomised controlled trials, and the review concluded that more robust research is needed.

That distinction matters.

We can say that there is promising evidence that looking at art can support stress reduction. We cannot yet say that looking at a painting is a guaranteed treatment for stress.

Does It Have to Be an Original Artwork?

The King's College London study gives us an interesting answer.

Original artworks produced the strongest physiological response in the 2025 study. However, participants who viewed reproductions also experienced a reduction in cortisol. (Art Fund)

This is encouraging for people who cannot visit a gallery every day.

A digital image cannot recreate everything about standing in front of an original. You lose the physical scale, texture, surface, material presence and the atmosphere of the gallery. Yet even a reproduction can give us an opportunity to pause and focus our attention on something other than work.

That could be particularly relevant for people working remotely.

Imagine replacing five minutes of scrolling through emails with five minutes spent looking carefully at an artwork.

What do you notice first?

• The colour?

• The expression?

• The texture?

• Something that reminds you of a place or memory?

There is no task to complete and no correct answer to find. For a few minutes, you are simply looking.

Art in the Workplace Is Not About “Making Employees Relax”

This is where the conversation becomes more interesting for organisations.

If art is introduced into a workplace only because it is supposed to reduce stress, its value can become overly narrow. Employees do not need another wellness activity they feel obliged to participate in.

The more interesting possibility is to create spaces and experiences that give people permission to slow down.

A thoughtfully curated artwork in a common area can create a moment of pause. An artist-led session can encourage employees to look closely at something unfamiliar. A short conversation around an artwork can take people away from the usual language of targets, performance and deadlines.

Art can therefore contribute to workplace wellbeing without turning into another productivity exercise.

What About Remote and Hybrid Teams?

This becomes particularly relevant as workplaces continue to change.

When employees work remotely, much of the day is spent inside the same digital environment. Meetings happen on screens. Documents are shared through screens. Communication happens through screens.

Even breaks can involve another screen. A short encounter with art offers a different kind of attention.

It does not need to be complicated. An organisation might share an artwork with its team at the beginning of a meeting and ask one simple question: “What do you notice?”

There is no need for everyone to interpret it in the same way.

One person may see something calming. Another may find it uncomfortable. Someone else may notice a detail nobody else saw.

That difference is valuable. And it can become the starting point for a more human conversation.

The Original Artwork Still Matters

The recent King's College London research also raises an important question about the role of physical art.

If reproductions can have an effect, why should organisations invest in original artworks?

The answer may lie in the experience itself.

Standing in front of an original work is different from looking at an image on a phone. Scale, texture, colour, material and physical presence all become part of the encounter. The 2025 study found a stronger physiological response among participants who viewed original works in the gallery setting.

For organisations, this suggests that workplace art does not have to be viewed only through the lens of decoration.

The physical artwork can become part of the environment employees experience every day.

The research around art and stress is still evolving, and it deserves to be studied with care rather than turned into another exaggerated wellness claim. But what we know so far is promising.

At Artlune, we see this as one reason art has a meaningful place within workplace environments. Art does not need to solve workplace stress to be valuable. It can create moments of attention, curiosity and pause within a day that often leaves very little room for them.

And perhaps that is something workplaces need more of. Not another thing to do. A reason to stop for a moment.

References

1. Art Fund. (2025). First-of-its-kind study proves positive impact of art on the body. Art Fund, 28 October 2025. Art Fund – First-of-its-kind study on the impact of art on the body

2. Law, M., Karulkar, N., & Broadbent, E. (2021). Evidence for the effects of viewing visual artworks on stress outcomes: A scoping review. BMJ Open, 11(6), e043549. BMJ Open – Evidence for the effects of viewing visual artworks on stress outcomes

3. King's College London & Art Fund. (2025). The Physiological Impact of Viewing Original Artworks vs. Reprints: A Comparative Study. Research study co-funded by Art Fund and the Psychiatry Research Trust. (Art Fund)

4. Art Fund. (2025). The physiological impact of viewing original artworks vs. reprints. Research summary and study materials. (Art Fund)