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The new Medici: The rise of corporate collecting and uses of contemporary art, 1925-1970
Abstract
This study explores the reasons why corporations which supported and collected contemporary art in the twentieth century chose abstract expressionism as the appropriate visual expression of their achievements during the 1950s and 60s. Corporate use of contemporary art began during the mid-1920s as the result of new interest in modernist subject matter. Affinities between technology and aesthetic modernism were promoted by some business advertisers. The depression of the 1930s prompted a conservative cultural retrenchment and new aesthetic statements. Regionalist art was used as an effective marketing tool by advertisers until political events abroad and at home led to its association with fascism. Nazi persecution of abstracted modernist work during the same period forged links between abstraction and democracy for many artists and collectors in the United States. Returning affluence and the shift of the center of modern art from Paris to New York at the end of World War II provided an impetus for corporate consumption of American modernist art. In the increasingly restrictive cultural climate of the post-war years, social realist art was perceived by Congressional investigators to be subversive and communist-influenced; consequently, many business patrons turned to abstract expressionism as a depoliticized, safe alternative. Other corporate collectors defended all varieties of modernist art under the banner of artistic freedom. These patrons called for government support of contemporary American art because they believed that diversity was essential to the preservation of democracy and freedom. The personal freedoms associated with democracy were not unlike the depoliticized personal expression through pure aesthetics emphasized by the abstract expressionists. During the 1950s and 60s increasing numbers of corporate executives saw the advantage of connecting the ahistorical nature of abstract expressionism and its emphasis on individual expression with corporate image. They believed that abstraction would attract attention and, perhaps more important, suggest that the corporation itself was up-to-date, diverse, and uniquely individual. By the 1960s issues of style had superseded earlier political, moral or aesthetic concerns of corporate collectors. Corporate involvement in the arts became chic. That modern art was good for business and that abstract expressionism was the perfect corporate style were fully accepted.
Subject Area
Art History|American studies|Business community
Recommended Citation
Barter, Judith A, "The new Medici: The rise of corporate collecting and uses of contemporary art, 1925-1970" (1991). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9207362.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9207362