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| Opportunities & Exposures: Art |
Art and Commerce
Edwina Sandys
08/01/2005
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In the beginning it was just me and my art. I started sketching and painting
in London in the early 1970s. I worked solely on my own projects, for my own
pleasure, from my own compulsion, with no thought of who might see or even buy
my work. Then I started showing in galleries and, like an actor who needs a
stage, started to enjoy the rush that a little success, a little public
exposure, a few sales gave me.
Little did I realize that these were the first
steps in my journey to realizing that art and entrepreneurship often go hand in
hand. In 1979, while living in New York, I was invited to create three
monumental pieces for the United Nations Year of the Child, to be located at UN
centers in New York, Geneva and Vienna. This commission was both theme specific
and site specific. It had to satisfy UNICEF, financial sponsors, physical site
requirements, the public and the artist.
The United Nations is exciting
because it is a world stage. It is also a hybrid creature. There are numerous
committee meetings and procedures to deal with—mountains of paperwork. Money is
frequently a problem; financial sponsors are rigorously vetted and sometimes
found wanting. Patience is the watchword.
Whereas bureaucrats hold back from
making decisions, entrepreneurs like to move things along. What a refreshing
contrast it has been to work on commissions for large corporations, the utter
bliss of working with one powerful CEO who, in a split second, can say,
“Yes.”
Some people think that working for a corporation might hinder my
freedom as an artist, compromise my work, somehow take the “purity” out of it.
But I have had very good experiences working with corporate clients. I rather
like to call them patrons, a noble word that recalls Lorenzo de Medici and his
relationship with Michelangelo. Entering into a dialogue with a client about his
needs and desires can force you to consider new subjects and materials, and look
at things from different perspectives.
Arboreal Aesthetic
In 1989, Dick Mahoney, the CEO of Monsanto at that
time, invited me to design a monumental sculpture for the company’s refurbished
headquarters in St. Louis. This was my first big adventure in the corporate
world. He jotted down a few words and phrases about how a sculpture might
symbolize his company and his aspirations for it.
Because Monsanto employed
many people in various places doing many different things, I decided that linked
trees would make a good image, which comprised many parts that made up the
whole, as many trees make up the forest. I called it The Branches of Promise.
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