20 March 2005 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – The headline grabbing work of young British artists isn’t something most people associate with the apparently staid world of commercial law. And yet the two are coming together this morning as leading legal services organisation DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary (“DLA Piper”) announces it is to provide the largest sponsorship package in the history of Tate Liverpool.
The four-year, £250,000 sponsorship of Tate Liverpool’s International Modern Art exhibitions runs up to and beyond Liverpool’s 2008 Capital of Culture celebrations.
Nigel Knowles, joint Chief Executive Officer of DLA Piper, said: “By working together, business and the arts can create a richer society. This is our largest cultural sponsorship to date and it both acknowledges and supports the presence of world class contemporary art in Liverpool. I am looking forward to seeing our long standing relationship with Tate Liverpool deepen over the years to come.”
Sir Nicholas Serota, the Director of the Tate: “I am delighted that DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary has embarked upon this pioneering high-level sponsorship with Tate Liverpool. This sends a strong signal to businesses of the ways in which the commercial world and the arts can work together.”
This series of exhibitions at Tate Liverpool will feature some of the most exciting modern and contemporary art from renowned British and international artists, including household names such as Picasso and Matisse.
Christoph Grunenberg, Director of Tate Liverpool, said: “The DLA Piper Series is the first European Capital of Culture sponsorship for Tate Liverpool, we are delighted to receive such a significant level of support from DLA Piper.
“As we move towards 2008 it is vital that the private sector supports the city’s cultural infrastructure to make the European Capital of Culture a success. The partnership with DLA Piper enables Tate Liverpool to increase substantially the ambition and diversity of its exhibition and education programmes during this exciting period, benefiting the city of Liverpool and all who live and work in the area, as well as the tourism economy.”
The DLA Piper Series: International Modern Art provides a loose chronology of international developments in modern art since 1900. To keep the galleries fresh, different works will be introduced over the length of the sponsorship. Artists featured now include Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol and Jake and Dinos Chapman.
The latter, regarded by many as many as the ‘bad boys’ of British art, have Disasters Of War on display at Tate Liverpool. It’s typical of the Chapman brothers’ work – exploring themes such as death and violence.
Disasters at War features a collection of intricately painted miniature battle scenes under a Perspex case, laid out in the manner of a hobbyist’s collection of model soldiers. At first the collection appears to undermine the epic notion of war, yet in fact the work gives a strange intensity to the horrors of battle.
