Collection features contemporary visuals

Contemporary art from the Marshall Erdman and Associates collection will be on display Nov. 21-Jan. 6 in Brittingham Galleries VI and VII, Elvehjem Museum of Art.

The collection was started in 1982 out of the interest company founder Marshall Erdman had in the graphic arts. Tim Erdman continues building the collection, which includes works by such nationally known artists as Chuck Close, Roy DeForest, Helen Frankenthaler, Margo Humphrey, Red Grooms, Ida Kohlmeyer, Barbara Kruger, David Lynch and Judy Pfaff.

The Erdman collection has helped support artists in Wisconsin by acquiring works by Mary Bero, Warrington Colescott, Frances Myers, Dennis Nechvatal, William Weege and John Wilde.

Marshall Erdman was influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s notion that architecture should integrate the visual arts. The primary function of Marshall Erdman and Associates is designing and building health-care facilities. As part of a design for a building, the firm provides artwork for the buildings, continuing the Wright-inspired tradition of the architect as a designer of spaces, not just buildings.

The works in the corporate collection are a permanent part of the environment of Marshall Erdman and Associates office, making it a special place to work. The corporate collection owes its impetus to the belief that art can have a powerful effect, inspiring the staff and visitors alike.

Currently, the collection has 376 original works on paper and fine art prints by contemporary artists, and works continue to be added.

The exhibition at the Elvehjem will allow visitors ready access to a small part of a little-seen treasure trove that has accumulated in Madison.

Art adviser and curator Janice Oresman will give the lecture “Art in the Workplace: What and Why Corporations Collect” at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 5, L140 Elvehjem Museum of Art.

Trained as an art historian, Oresman has advised corporate art collectors for 25 years. In that time she has witnessed the positive and negative reactions of corporate clients to artworks in their midst. She will recount personal experiences tempered by her belief in the educational mission of artwork in the business setting.