The
PaineWebber Art Collection
Click on an image for more details about the artwork.
One of the most striking qualities of contemporary art is its ability
to shock, outrage and provoke its audience. Since these are characteristics
that seem to be in direct opposition to the kind of public image that a
large corporation seeks, it might seem anomalous for a corporation such
as PaineWebber to be collecting contemporary art at all.
The PaineWebber Group's art program breaks many of the rules that are
supposed to define corporate enterprise, and yet it remains very much a
corporate program. This contradiction gives the collection, which has been
correctly characterized as "strikingly avant garde" 1 a dimension of interest
that goes beyond its high quality as a discriminating selection of contemporary
art. And because the collection exists as an integral part of the environment
at the company's New York headquarters, it also tells us something important
about contemporary patronage and about how the art of our time is actually
used and responded to by people who spend time living with it.
Perhaps I should begin by saying that I have been familiar with the
PaineWebber art collection since 1985, and that I consider it to be one
of the finest collections of contemporary art in America. It consists of
paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and sculptures by a wide range
of contemporary and recent artists, American and foreign. Although the
collection represents a broad spectrum of styles, it is not meant to provide
a survey of contemporary art; the primary basis for the selection of individual
works is quality rather than comprehensiveness. And although a number of
well established artists are includedsuch as Georg Baselitz, Chuck Close,
Lucian Freud, Jasper Johns, Anselm Kiefer, Roy Lichtenstein, Elizabeth
Murray, Susan Rothenberg, and Frank Stellaa good deal of attention is given
to younger, less well known artists, such as Caroll Dunham, Günther
Förg, Damien Hirst, Jim Shaw, Lorna Simpson and Kiki Smith. The collection
has clearly been put together with a relish for making discriminating judgments
about what will hold up well over time, rather than simply following established
reputations.
. . .
Like most corporate collections, one of its functions is to enhance
the prestige of the company, and this it seems to do quite effectivelyalthough,
as we shall see, not in as uncomplicated a way as one might think. At the
same time, the PaineWebber art collection is rather unusual. The selection
of objects has been made almost entirely by Donald B. Marron, the firm's
chairman and chief executive officer, and one of its primary purposes is
to embellish the workplace. At any given time, most of the collection is
hung along the corridors and in the offices of PaineWebber's corporate
headquarters in New York City; both the size of the collection, and to
some degree the dimensions of the works in it, have been determined by
the pragmatic function.
In
many ways, it is also a rather daring collection, especially within the
sensitive world of corporate image making. As has been widely remarked,
corporate collections frequently aim for a certain neutrality, what has
been characterized as a form of visual Muzak or "white noise."2 They tend
to focus on reassuring forms of representational art, such as landscapes
and still lifes, or on rather cool and impersonal abstract art that avoids
the expression of strong emotions.3 Indeed, corporate curators frequently
explain that they avoid anything overtly political or controversial, especially
images of nudes, religious subject matter or anything they consider to
be "too abstract or crazy."4
The PaineWebber collection, by contrast, seems to override virtually
all these taboos. It is not confined to a single school or style, such
as realist landscapes or "cool," geometrical abstractions. Rather it is
more like a private collection, driven by a desire for quality and remaining
unapologetically personal in many of its choices. As a reflection of Marron's
personal taste, for example, it contains virtually no Minimalist or Conceptual
art, and it stays clear of funky assemblages and installations.