A CELEBRATION OF CORPORATE ART PROGRAMMES WORLDWIDE, Bonhams HQ, 101 New Bond Street, January 13th– January 24th.
In their new book, A CELEBRATION OF CORPORATE ART PROGRAMMES WORLDWIDE (£75, Wapping Arts Trust, supported by Bonhams) authors Peter Harris and Shirley Reiff Howarth’s give us a fascinating insight into the world of corporate collecting. The first such collection is thought to be that of the Sienese Monte dei Paschi Bank which was formed in 1472 and it still thrives today.
Benvenuto di Giovanni, Madonna della Misericordia (Madonna of Mercy) fresco, 1472, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena headquarters
Some two thousand companies and half of the Fortune 500 were seriously collecting by the second half of the 1990s. Organisations such as airports, retailers, hotels, hospitals (my local hospital, for example, has a good collection, including wall paintings by Bridget Riley), legal firms and blue-chip corporations. In most cases these collections are used to show the companies philanthropic interests and their core beliefs to their employees and the wider world. Sponsorship of art programmes and loans to major exhibitions also brings the company’s name to a wider audience.
Gold Muisca boat
Museo del Oro, Inv. M.O.11.373
Photograph: Juan Mayr/Museo del Oro
There is an emphasis on the modern and contemporary in this exhibition which features up to four works from companies, including ABN AMRO Neuflize Vie (France), Canary Wharf, Clifford Chance, Fleming Wyfold Art Foundation (UK), EON (Germany),Fundacion Telefonica, Fundacion Mapfre (Spain), Hiscox, HSBC (France), Simmons and Simmons, Statoil (Norway).
Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset Short Cut, 2003 Mixed media, Fiat Uno, camper trailer 250cm x 850cm x 300cm Installation view Ottagono, Vittorio Emanuele Gallery, Milan Photograph: Jens Ziehe commissioned and produced by Fondazione Nicola Trussardi. Courtesy Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset. Massimo De Carlo Gallery, Milan
Paintings, prints, sculpture, photography and video art are on loan with works by Cadell, Tracey Emin, George Grosz, Otto Dix, Roberto Matta, Antoine Tapies, Richard Hamilton, Ellis O’Connell and Cornelia Parker as well as a Delvaux and a Magritte. Some of which have not been widely seen before.
Tim Forrest's E & A 
Nice blog Our Corporate Art specializing in wholesale/designer accounts and fine art trade shows.For More info please visit us at http://www.dachospitality.com/
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