Modern Art’s Big Business in San Diego : Wyatt Co. Among Challengers to Conservative Tone

The Wyatt Company may have risked alienating its high-rolling clients last year when it purchased and installed 24 contemporary works of art in its new offices on Genesee Avenue.

A gamble? Yes. But success in business often requires taking risks.

Wyatt is an international business consulting firm whose sober, gray-flannel clients range from such Fortune 500 giants as General Motors and IBM to regional corporations such as Security Pacific Bank and San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

Wyatt is also one of a few San Diego-area businesses that have recently begun to buy modern, abstract art. In other cities, particularly in New York, corporate collecting of contemporary art has caught on in a big way.

The Equitable Life Assurance Society of America is spending more than $7 million on some highly controversial artworks for its new offices. Chase Manhattan Bank, which began collecting art in 1959, bought 1,200 modern paintings and prints in 1985 alone.

Out West, the United Bank of Denver acquired nearly 150 contemporary artworks in 1983. In Los Angeles, Security Pacific Bank has accumulated a 6,000-piece collection, nearly three-quarters of which is by California artists.

In San Diego, though, the business community is just “discovering” modern art. A conservative approach rules here, where the tradition is “decorator art,” that is, inexpensive reproductions and prints.

As Los Angeles art consultant Tamara Thomas put it: “In corporate art, there’s conservative, very conservative and to the right of Genghis Kahn.”

How does an executive wisely spend the company’s hard-earned profits on something he may not understand? How does he tell the difference between “good” art and “bad” art when one can be as expensive as the other? Can a firm with a modest budget even afford modern art?

And what about the art scene in San Diego? Are artists in San Diego creating quality work?

One way to acquire modern art is to use consultants, who make a living helping businesses take the plunge into contemporary art waters.

The largest and best contemporary art collection in corporate San Diego may be that of Aerojet General Corp., the La Jolla aerospace and defense contractor. When the company built its new offices on North Torrey Pines Road in 1979, it decided to decorate with contemporary art.

“We looked at what we’re building--rockets, missiles, spacecraft. Prints and the Old Masters didn’t seem appropriate,” said Tom Sprague, Aerojet vice president of public affairs. “It was a modern building, and we were a modern, high-tech firm. We thought contemporary art would be appropriate and hopefully stimulate our employees to be more creative. We live on creativity.”

Aerojet looked at several consultants and chose Hunsaker-Schlesinger Associates of Los Angeles.

“We had an ideal situation,” said Laura Schlesinger, referring to the Aerojet committee of one she worked with, a man who was “open-minded with an intuitive eye . . . and an enormous capacity for fine art.”

Working with this executive (who is no longer with Aerojet), Schlesinger compiled a collection of 237 works of art over a period of three months.

“The reaction of employees ranged from ‘Gee, that’s great,’ to ‘How can I get that off my wall?’ ” Sprague said. Negative feeling were reduced, however, through an educational program Schlesinger initiated. She held after-hours lectures for all employees and their spouses, giving a presentation on the artists’ careers and on the pieces Aerojet had purchased. She even had artists come talk to the employees about their work.

The education paid off. Now interest in contemporary art has risen among employees, said Sprague, “because if you go to a museum in Chicago and see a Jasper Johns, and say, ‘My goodness, I’ve got one of those on the wall in my office,’ suddenly you begin to see that the work really is appreciated.”

Besides works by Johns, the Aerojet “office decorations” include pieces by such internationally recognized artists as Frank Stella and Claes Oldenburg as well as local artists Robin Bright and Russell Forrester.

Schlesinger also advised the Wyatt Company on its modern art acquisitions. As a consulting firm, Wyatt specializes in personnel matters, offering advice to clients on issues such as employee compensation, risk management, benefits, and research and information services. The company decided to practice what it preaches with new office space that combines the latest in high technology and excellence in architecture and art.

“We wanted to create an optimum, productive work environment for our employees as well as an attractive place for our clients,” said Paul Sanchez, a Wyatt spokesman. With an office in a contemporary building, it was a natural decision to choose contemporary art.

Wyatt failed to respond to anything in her first presentation, Schlesinger said. However, once the artworks were presented to a small committee, that changed.

“Once we had their confidence and could back up the credentials of the artists, they accepted our total proposal,” Schlesinger said.

Schlesinger took Wyatt’s employees and their families through a series of discussions about art, explaining what’s interesting about a piece and why it succeeds as a work of art, and showing slides of other works by the artists to show the phases in their development.

But no one tried to persuade employees that they should like every work of art.

“There’s no reason why everybody should love every bit of art in an organization,” Sanchez said. “But it’s a chance for people to expand their horizons. The end result may be that they still prefer representational or traditional art. That’s fine.”

Not everyone agrees with the idea of using consultants. Robert Orton, who retired to San Diego several years ago, acquired a significant collection while running his family textile business in Cincinnati.

Orton later donated the collection to the Cincinnati Art Museum. He required that the collection be appraised every three years. New art, amounting to 20% of the collection’s value, must be purchased with money made by fund raising or by selling part of the collection.

“I would advise executives to take an interest in buying art themselves. Too many companies have what is known as ‘safe art,’ ” Orton said. “I think executives should go to New York in particular, to certain important galleries, where they can get good advice, and to museum people. Museum curators have been very helpful to me.”

Orton took a year or two getting a feel for the contemporary art world, then made his purchases. “I had a lot of opposition from our employees,” he said. “But art is validated through the written word, through a catalogue or a book published on an artist.”

Orton bought books and spread them around the office. Eventually, he said, the employees became quite proud of the collection and resisted turning it over to the museum.

Attorney Michael Krichman used the Orton approach in purchasing a contemporary photography collection for the law firm of Latham & Watkins last year. Although Krichman had worked as a museum curator for a primitive collection, he had no knowledge of photography when the firm’s partners asked him to put together a collection for the San Diego office.

They already had some works by contemporary artists. Krichman chose photography, though, since he had a limited budget and wanted to acquire a significant collection.

“The market in photography is not very strong. You can get original pieces at $2,000 by major artists,” Krichman said. “An Ansel Adams might cost $10,000. A painting by a similar artist would cost $1.5 million.” He said many excellent photographs can be acquired for around $400.

Krichman began by buying “$400 worth of catalogues and picking (La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art director) Hugh Davies’ brain.”

After four months spent learning about photography, he made his purchases through La Jolla’s Photography Gallery. That was another reason he chose photography. “It’s one of four or five galleries in the country where you can buy just about any photograph you want,” he said.

Krichman helped Latham and Watkins acquire a wide-ranging collection, including works by “old masters” such as Adams (Adams’ estate is a client of the firm), Aaron Siskind and Paul Caponigro. But Krichman is proudest of the young artists represented in the collection, particularly locals such as Walter Cotten and Philipp Scholz-Ritterman.

“It’s so easy to take that next step that will separate you from” collections of just proven contemporary artists, Krichman said. “Find out about those people, the young ones, and take a chance on the emerging talents.”

Mary Beebe, curator of the Stuart Collection at UC San Diego, and Davies are high on San Diego artists.

“There is first-class international art here at home,” Davies said. “You’ve got first-class stuff in galleries like Mark Quint and Patti Aande, Jose Tasende and Thomas Babeor.

“You don’t have to go to Los Angeles. People are under the misconception that unless you buy in Los Angeles or New York, you are not getting the best possible product.”

Beebe agreed that finding the right galleries is important. Established names such as Claes Oldenburg and Henry Moore can be bought through galleries such as Tasende or Babeor.

“But with names like that you’re probably talking about peak dollars,” Beebe said. “If you’re interested in adventure, then you discover the young galleries and the young painters.

“It’s a matter of attitude and approach. Businessmen are capable of being very creative in their businesses, and at their core they understand what artists are about. To be successful, businessmen have to be creative and take risks.”