Page 34 - Studio International - January 1970

The Sebastian

Ferranti

collection

Ronald Alley

Patronage of contemporary art by business
firms and industrialists is still at a relatively
undeveloped stage in this country. There is
little to parallel the collections formed in the
United States by such firms as the Chase Man-
hattan Bank, which owns one of the finest
collections of American Abstract Expres-
sionism, nor does one find patrons who oper-
ate on anything like the same scale as Mr
Seymour H. Knox who presents the Albright-
Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo with a succession
of contemporary paintings and sculptures of
the highest quality and has turned it into one
of the world's great museums.
Just as our industrialists mostly seem to be
slower than their American counterparts to
take advantage of new techniques and of the
talents which are available, so it does not seem
to be a natural step in this country, as it is in
the United States, for them to identify them-
selves with the finest art of their own day.
Patronage has mostly been haphazard and
lacking in discrimination, so that far too much
money has been spent on really dreadful
mural paintings or boardroom portraits of a
grotesquely inferior kind, while some of our
best artists have never received commissions
from industry or had their works bought in this
way. This is an unfortunate situation, sad for
the firms themselves as it is contrary to their
own best interests, sad for our artists who need
the patronage industry could provide and sad
for the cultural life of the country as a whole.
Firms which would never dream of taking any
other sort of important decision without ob-
taining expert advice seem content all too
often to leave the choice of works of art to the
Managing Director's girl friend.
All the more credit, therefore, to those who
have shown what can be done, such as the
Financial Times and the brewers Ind Coope for
forming distinguished collections. Particular
credit to the Stuyvesant Foundation both for
its collection of recent British art which in
scale and quality rivals the Tate's and for its
enlightened support of young artists through
exhibitions and travelling scholarships. In
each case the people responsible had the good
sense to seek the best possible advice. Credit
likewise to Mr John Moores for sponsoring
the only major review of British art outside