An Incomplete World: Works from the UBS Art Collection opened recently at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The works presented have been selected by the gallery’s curators from the extensive corporate collection of UBS, one of the world’s largest wealth managers and a major international investment bank which is headquartered in Switzerland. The exhibition is one element of a three-year partnership between the gallery and the bank as a major sponsor. As well as enabling the AGNSW to present a major international exhibition of contemporary artworks never before seen in Australia, the partnership has facilitated the gallery’s development of a contemporary art website, the publication of its collection handbook, Contemporary and a re-hang of part of the contemporary gallery space.
The relationship between UBS and the AGNSW is not unique: the bank has similar sponsorship arrangements with both the Tate Modern and MoMA as well as with the National Gallery of Victoria. It is also a major sponsor of arts and cultural projects around the world, including the Swiss art fair Art Basel and the Australia Council’s Venice Biennale project.
For UBS, the relationship with the AGNSW and other arts and cultural bodies provides an opportunity for co-branding in advertising campaigns that emphasise the bank’s reputation for providing innovative wealth-management strategies, creative thinking and a commitment to excellence. Interestingly, the bank also has a wealth management division specifically related to Art Banking and offers advice on buying, selling and structuring art portfolios to high net-worth clients.
This case study will concentrate on the relationship between UBS and the art galleries and art fairs which the bank sponsors, to investigate issues arising from this strategy from the perspective of both patron and beneficiary. I am interested in the type of relationships UBS is forming in the arts sector, the motivation for and benefits from those relationships, the ethics of this style of ‘enlightened’ patronage and the effect of this relationship between art and money on shaping exhibition policy.
Corporate websites
http://www.ubs.com/
UBS corporate website and Art Banking division of wealth management
http://www.ubs.com/4/artcollection/index.html
UBS Art Collection website
Gallery websites
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/current/incomplete_world
A description of the current exhibition, An Incomplete World: Works from the UBS Art Collection
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
Tate Modern website includes information on the UBS sponsored re-hang UBS Openings: Tate Modern Collection, the UBS Openings 2006 Photography and 2007 Drawings exhibitions drawn from the UBS Art Collection and the contemporary performance events included in the UBS Openings program
http://www.moma.org
MoMA website includes information on 2005 exhibition Contemporary Voices: Works from the UBS Art Collection and details of gifted and promised works from UBS
Biennales and Art Fairs
http://www.artbasel.com/go/id/ss/lang/eng/
Art Basel website including details of partners for this international art fair held in Basel, Switzerland
http://www.australiavenicebiennale.com.au/content/view/60/90/lang,en/
Australia Council Venice Biennale Project including details of major partners