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The next time you're standing on Fourth Avenue next to the downtown Seattle Library, stop gazing upward at the astonishing Rem Koolhaas design and turn to the west. You should immediately notice the sleek, knobby Henry Moore sculpture "Vertebrae" in the plaza outside an office building.
That vertebrae is an endangered species, but not in the animal sense. It's rare because it's one of a few remaining pieces of public art in this city that came from a celebrated corporate art collection, that of Seattle First National Bank.
Now peer through the building's window into its lobby. All you will see there is a huge, bare wall — a spot that until recently showcased a mural-sized painting by California artist Sam Francis. That painting, too, once belonged to Seafirst, then it went to Bank of America in the early 1980s in one of the largest bank mergers in U.S. history.
There it stayed until Saturday, June 26, when BofA had the painting removed so it could be shipped to North Carolina, the bank's headquarters city and the location of a new museum that will open this fall with an exhibit of works from the bank's collection.
Seattle's loss is Charlotte's gain.
"I'm grieving over the loss of that magnificent Sam Francis," said Llew Pritchard, a lawyer who has worked off and on in the tower since the 1970s. His own office, on the 42nd floor, is filled with works by artists, both local and otherwise. He's especially fond of Japanese paintings.
"As you can see, I'm a great devotee of the arts, and I'm sad," Pritchard said, recalling the "great public art collection" amassed by Seafirst back in the day. He said that to him the painting fit into a chronology that represented public art and spectacle in Seattle: There's the building itself at 1001 Fourth Ave., which opened as Seafirst headquarters in 1969 and was nicknamed "the box the Space Needle came in" because of its size rectangular shape; the untitled Sam Francis and the "Vertebrae," both from the 1970s; and the angular, glass-honeycomb Koolhaas library, which opened in 2004.
Bank of America, by far the largest bank in Washington by market share (20 percent, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal), alerted tenants by email before moving the 18-by-36-foot Sam Francis canvas, but not everyone received the alert — Pritchard included.
Britney Sheehan, the bank's spokeswoman in Seattle, explained that the bank no longer has offices in the building, which Seafirst built as its headquarters in 1969. Now there's just a lobby branch, and the tower has been renamed Safeco Plaza.
“It's a building we don't occupy at the level we once did,” she said. As a result, "We don't have any plans for that building" or its blank wall.
So now, instead of the art telling a story of Seattle's past, it illustrates the fallout from corporate conglomeration and retraction.
Sheehan emphasized that BofA, whose collection is regarded as one of the largest and most valuable in the corporate world, remains committed to public art. That, she said, is why it's sharing more than 60 of its works with Charlotte's Mint Museum, which is reopening in a new location.
The bank doesn't disclose the size or value of its collection. But Sheehan said that through its "Art in our Communities" program, BofA has provided more than 2,000 artworks for public display since 2008, in cities including Jacksonville, Tucson, and Dallas. And in 2010-11 it will loan museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, more than 20 complete exhibitions curated by the bank, each with 75-100 works of art.
"Lots of corporations are selling their works of fine art," Sheehan said. "It's a testament to our commitment to communities that we're actually making these available."
In Charlotte, they're celebrating the bank's generosity.
The Mint exhibit "includes large works that usually don't travel. Some have not been seen on the East Coast," the Charlotte Observer reported, citing the Sam Francis. "While the Mint got to pick, Bank of America picked up the tab, paying costs such as crating and shipping, an important consideration when museums, like all nonprofits, are strapped for cash. The Mint will keep the ticket revenue."
Back in Seattle, art lovers can rest easy about one thing: "Vertebrae" likely won't be leaving any time soon. The Seattle Art Museum owns the sculpture; Seafirst sold it once but got so much heat it bought the piece back and donated it to the museum.
For Pritchard, that isn't much comfort. He's sad, mad, and maybe even a tad irrational about the loss. He saves some of the venom for the North Carolinians who have inherited his beloved painting, asking, "What have they done to deserve it?"
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Comments:
Posted Fri, Jul 23, 8:21 a.m. Inappropriate
Author missed a great opportunity to tell the story of the "Saving of the Henry Moore" from would be corporate thieves back in the day. It starred a hawk-eyed former mayor and a swift, and determined, department head named Holly Miller. Check it out.
Charley
Posted Fri, Jul 23, 10:14 a.m. Inappropriate
Seafirst used to have a beautiful art museum in what is now Seattle's office building at 700 5th Avenue. That went the way of the dodo when BOFA gobbled up Seafirst. BOFA's removal the last bits of its corporate art from the local landscape is akin to Chase's cancellation of WAMU's annual fireworks show.
Thanks to a generous TARP bailout, BOFA and other monster banks are feasting on the carcass that is the US economy. Thanks to their TARP handout, BOFA was able to devour toxic assets like Countrywide and Merrill Lynch with nary a burp, thereby enabling their cancerous growth as a vertically integrated commercial bank, investment bank, insurance company and brokerage firm.
People who deplore BOFA's greed and the deplorable way it lured mortgage customers into loans bank execs knew full well these customers couldn't handle can do themselves a favor by moving their money to a credit union or a fiscally sound community bank like People's Bank or Washington Federal. Even if every BOFA account holder in the state of Washington did this it would result in only a tiny dent in BOFA's bottom line, but at least customers can sleep easier at night knowing they will no longer be regarded as marks and rubes ripe for the plucking by Bank of Effing America.
www.moveyourmoney.info
Posted Fri, Jul 23, 3:03 p.m. Inappropriate
The Seafirst Tower (as it was known from 1969-1986) was an excellent example of the goodwill a corporation can cultivate in its community by investing in fine public art integrated with fine architecture. Don Winkelmann of NBBJ (only 29 years old at the time) was the design architect of the building, with famed Portland modernist Pietro Belluschi as design consultant. Winkelmann, a Paul Rudolph student while at the Yale School of Architecture, was the designer of many of Downtown Seattle's most notable buildings from the 60s to the 80s. At the time of its completion, New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable declared the Seafirst Tower "one of the most urbane buildings in the country."
In addition to the Moore sculpture and Sam Francis painting, several other important works of art were acquired or commissioned by Seafirst for public display at the building. Few realize that the lighting suspended above the banking lobby is in fact a large sculptural work commissioned for the building from noted Italian sculptor Harry Bertoia. An important bas relief sculpture imbedded in the exterior paving on the Fourth Avenue plaza level is buried beneath a one-story addition that was constructed in the mid-80s on the west side of the tower. At the time, the Seattle Arts Commission insisted that the piece be protected from damage, despite being hidden beneath the new construction. Now, practically nobody knows it's under there. Some day, a demolition team will come across it, but by then its unlikely there will be any record of its provenance.
Perhaps most lyrical was the "Penelope," a tall white marble sculpture of a draped female figure, larger than life-size, that stood in the building lobby for nearly 20 years. Winkelmann once related the story of how, in the midst of building construction, he was vacationing in Europe when he received a call asking for his assistance in selecting a major piece for that prominent spot. He found the Penelope while overseas, and arranged the bank's purchase of the piece.
Ironically, Penelope is a character from Homer's Odyssey whose name has traditionally been associated with faithfulness. BOFA's treatment of the Seafirst Art Collection has been anything but.
Posted Fri, Jul 23, 5:52 p.m. Inappropriate
Another sad example of the consolidation of wealth in this country to Wall Street and the wealthy estates at The Hamptons. Such consolidation is the root of our current economic condition.
Posted Sat, Jul 24, 6:08 p.m. Inappropriate
Lets be clear- this painting was never "public art".
Public Art means the Public was involved in funding, selecting, and owning art, and it is on display in a public place.
Sometimes, without a doubt, the public does this either thru elected officials or thru government employees, so individual members of the public may not actually select the art.
But this painting meets none of those criteria.
No public monies were ever involved in its purchase.
It was not in any way selected or commissioned by public or government agencies
It was not owned by the public.
It was not on display in a public place.
If the public puts nothing into the equation, it cant very well complain when a privately owned painting on display in a privately owned space, with controlled access, is moved.
Dont get me wrong, I am very much in favor of true public art.
And I liked this painting.
But it never belonged to the people of Seattle, even if you could see it from the street, and its loss is a predictable result of mergers and business practices.
What this points out is how valuable actual public art programs are- and how much we actually do benefit from art in our city.
Posted Mon, Jul 26, 10:06 a.m. Inappropriate
If you think you miss the Sam Francis painting, just wait until the Alaska Way Viaduct is gone.