Corporate Art

This is also an open invite for suggestions that I can forward as to how the rest of the new place gets decorated so that we can prevent Guernica from going back up. We already have a lot of framed art, I have a feeling that I’m not going to be able to make a case for not putting Starry Night and the like back on the walls and don’t know that I care to.

Which brings me to my next question: What is appropriate corporate art? I can think of a few artist’s who’s knee-jerk reaction would be that there is no such thing.

I dig that McDonald’s typically has the local owner or manager find local artists to show in their stores. I’m not expecting to be challenged at McDonald’s but a landscape or two is nicer than Wet Lettuce With Knife on Cutting Board #4 stock photography.

Does corporate art have to be anything more than visual noise that pleases the employee’s? Should we snag a bunch of Rothko’s and Pollack’s and select pieces of Impressionism and call it a day (that list was random, it could just as likely be Matisse’s, Braque’s, and select Surrealist prints)? We are an IT company focused on customer service; does that relegate us to Photo-realism, Fordism, Futurism, Dada and Post-modernism (ha, now that’s a vague one)?

How about this: Get three canvases for every employee, of varying sizes. Get a lot of paint, and lots of brushes. Maybe find someone that knows how to paint for technical advice. Force everyone to generate some art. It’ll never fly, but I really really want to try it anyway.