L’art avec pertes ou profit ?,

Can art and business live side by side? They have to becasue they each need one another. That at least is the thesis that underlies the book written by a well-known gallery owner and the winner of the 2005 prize for cultural patronage. Traditional examples of art commissioned by companies are analyzed, in particular the one of Renault which, in the 1960s to 1970s, gave work to Arman, Dubuffet and Hantaï and commissioned Yvaral, the son of Vasarely, to do their new logo. The State’s commitment through the FRAC (Regional Funds for Contemporary Art) then the first whmpers of patronage from Pompidou up to the law stampled by French Cultural Minister Aillagon in 2003, are quickly dissected. Akzo Nobel, la Caixa, la Caisse des Dépôts, UBS or the Norwegian Hydro: all of these large firms had collections at one point or another. What have they become? The comparison is not always flattering for France… This quick introduction pushes us to go further: the appendixes indicate the main corporate collections in Europe, and this gives us a few directions in which to look a little deeper.

• L’art avec pertes ou profit ?, par Karine Lisbonne et Bernard Zürcher, Flammarion, 2007, 280 p., ISBN : 2-08210570-9, 21 €