COLLECTORS WITH PANACHE An
Investment in the Future A corporate art collection aims to inspire.
By
Diana Mehl
Frank Stella, The Wheelbarrow (B#3, 2x), 1988,
mixed media on cast aluminum, 275 x 279 x 110 cm, The
Museum of Modern Art, New York. Partial and promised
gift of UBS.
Raymond Pettibon, No Title (But he saw...),
1999, pen and ink on paper, 30 x 22 1/4 inches.
Brice Marden, Chinese Dancing, 1994 –
96, oil on canvas, 152,5 x 274 cm, The UBS Art Collection.
Cindy Sherman, Untitled #122A, 1983, color
photograph, 89,5 x 54 cm, The UBS Art Collection.
Thomas Ruff, Portrait (F. Simon), photograph,
82 5/8 x 65 inches, The UBS Art Collection.
This
May, in an event eagerly anticipated in the art world, the
Tate Modern in London will unveil a new look – the first
major rehang of its permanent collection since it opened in
2000. The Tate's collection will be supplemented by
a series of displays of works from the celebrated art collection
of financial giant UBS, with which the Tate has entered into
a three-year partnership. The UBS Art Collection is considered
one of the finest contemporary art collections in the world.
The Tate Modern partnership is just one of the many creative
ways that UBS is using its art collection to broaden the public's
appreciation for contemporary art around the world and to
support and encourage the development of contemporary artists.
The Collection has traveled to major museums throughout the
United States and was shown last year at the newly reopened
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York in an exhibition titled
Contemporary Voices: Works from The UBS Art Collection.
Forty-four works from the Collection have been promised to
the museum. More recently, selections from the Collection
have traveled to the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico and the
Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, Switzerland. “UBS's
commitment to contemporary art is a deep and longstanding
one. It is a heritage we are proud of. The artworks symbolize
the creativity and inspiration that are key to our success
as a firm. The Collection is a significant and important investment
in culture and we have an obligation to share the works as
widely as possible,” said Mark B. Sutton, chairman and
CEO, Americas, UBS.
The UBS Art Collection consists of more than 900 paintings,
sculptures, photographs and works on paper by a broad range
of the world's most prominent artists representing work
from the second half of the 20th century through today. “The
Collection is built around a core of 1,000 artworks. Roughly
70 percent are from the former PaineWebber Collection [UBS
acquired PaineWebber in 2000], and 30 percent are from UBS
collections all over the world, mainly from Europe,”
says Petra Arends, collection executive of The UBS Art Collection
and former deputy head of the UBS Art Banking Team. “A
group of three independent experts did the evaluation. The
criteria: [The art] had to be moveable, triple-A quality and
had to be contemporary….”
The PaineWebber Collection was started in 1970 under the leadership
of Donald B. Marron, former chairman of PaineWebber, longtime
trustee of MoMA and a renowned and passionate collector of
modern and contemporary art. In an interview with Glenn D.
Lowry, director of MoMA, in the book Contemporary Voices:
Works from The UBS Art Collection, Marron explains his
reasons for focusing on contemporary art. “In addition
to loving contemporary art, I had the strong view that good
contemporary art reflects the energy of the society in which
it's created, and great contemporary art can sometimes
anticipate the future.” The Collection includes works
that embrace a wide range of styles: Abstract Expressionists
such as Willem de Kooning and Robert Rauschenberg; the Pop
Art of Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein; the
work of Minimalists such as Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Brice
Marden and Richard Serra; portraiture by Lucian Freund and
Chuck Close; contemporary German artists such as Gerhard Richter,
Sigmar Polke, Anselm Kiefer and George Baselitz; and a strong
collection of contemporary photography that includes work
by Cindy Sherman, Thomas Struth, Candida Höfer and Thomas
Ruff.
While the majority of artists in the Collection are from the
U.S. and Europe – especially from Germany and Britain
– future acquisitions will focus on emerging artists,
particularly from Asia and Latin America. To ensure the continuing
quality of the Collection, UBS has formed an advisory board
that meets twice yearly to work with its in-house curator
Matthias Winzen on acquisitions. The board members –
among the most influential individuals in contemporary art
– include Yoshiko Mori, co-founder of the Mori Museum
in Japan, representing Asia; Jean-Christophe Ammann, former
director of the MMK Museum fur Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt,
representing Europe; Donald B. Marron, now chairman and CEO
of Lightyear Capital, representing the U.S.; and Patricia
Phelps de Cisneros, chairman of Fundación Cisneros
of Venezuela, representing Latin America.
“Advisory boards are totally exciting” says Arends.
“We have proposals from different areas, and we have
seen works of art no one has ever seen before. We didn't
even know the artists' names, but we got to know the
ones we should consider acquiring. There are meetings with
presentations from each advisor, and one of Matthias's
tasks is to go back and do research on certain artists and
to get a bigger picture.”
“We are making the Collection stronger, really focusing
on contemporary artists from the last three decades to fill
in generational gaps,” says Winzen. “There was
a recent acquisition of Thomas Ruff, who is not an old artist
but very important in the realm of photography, and also of
Nicolas Nixon, who represents another kind of photography.
We are trying to mirror UBS as an international firm –
so the art must be international…. In addition, we'd
like to get the younger, emerging artist.”
Education continues to be an important objective of UBS. Since
December 2004 the public has had access to the entire Collection
online through The UBS Art Collection Web Museum. “We
try to give people value-added information.… It is all
quality and content driven,” says Arends, who also stresses
the importance of reaching out to the public, particularly
younger people, without seeming as though the aim is education.
“You have to reach them on their computers,” she
says. “They are accessing the world differently. You
have to give them a good feeling while they're learning
so that they can get the information.”
Upcoming
UBS Sponsored Art Events
March
9 – May 19 Great Pots:
The Vessel as Art, 1900 - 2000
20th Century Ceramics from The Newark Museum
The UBS Art Gallery, NYC
212.713.2000; www.ubs.com
April 9 – September 24 Constructing
New Berlin
Phoenix Art Museum, AZ
602.257.1222; www.phxart.org
May 26 – May 29 UBS Openings:
The Long Weekend
Tate Modern, London, UK
+44 20 7887 8888; www.tate.org.uk/modern
June 1 – August 11 First Impressions:
American Etchings from The Parrish Art Museum
The UBS Art Gallery, NYC
212.713.2000; www.ubs.com
June 14 - 18 Art 37 Basel
Basel, Switzerland
+41 58-200 20 20; www.artbasel.com
Ongoing online exhibition: Selected works
from Contemporary Voices: Fondation Beyeler
hosts The UBS Art Collection www.ubs.com/artcollection
