Law Times

PAGE 4 NEWS July 26, 2010 • law Times McCarthys injects fun into storied art collection BY MICHAEL McKIERNAN Law Times rthy Tétrault LLP. Th e camera circles slowly and silently around Auguste Rodin's sombre sculpted tribute to a famous 14th-century French defeat, the Burghers of Calais. Suddenly, the picture cuts to a group of Korean A motorcycle couriers recreating the slouched and sullen demeanour of the statue's subjects. Th is is the Burghers of Seoul by emerging Montreal artist Adad Hannah. It's a piece that sums up McCa- rthys' approach to its art collection, according to Brian Pel, chairman of the fi rm's art committee. "It's nothing profound but it's fun," he says. "You don't want to be overly serious about it. Peo- ple get way too serious about art and art-speak. If the work is good, who cares who does it?" A little further down the corridor, Pel picks up a small blue bird from its refl ective glass base. "When I installed this here, people called me up and Brian Pel, a partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP and chairman of the art committee, stands in front of Architect's Cabinet by Renée Van Halm. said, 'You can't leave that there. It's going to get stolen.' But it hasn't been and it won't be," Pel says of Blue Bird on Map by Euan Macdonald. "If you come by here fi ve or six times in a day, it'll always be in a diff erent position because people just pick it up. It's interactive and it's fun." Th e main corridor on the 53rd fl oor and its meeting rooms are packed with paintings and photographs. In fact, the only blank spaces on the walls have small notices in- dicating that a piece is out on loan to an exhibition. Th e Art Gallery of Mississauga has temporarily commandeered several works, while some by the Canadian collective Gen- eral Idea will travel all the way to Paris later this year. "It's part of the mandate to share the collection with others and make it accessible," says Jeanne Parkin, an art consultant who curates the collection for McCarthys. She has worked with the fi rm since it began collect- ing art about 25 years ago. Spurred on by generous cor- porate tax incentives for Canadian art, it has continued buying ever since. But Pel says the early purchases encountered some resistance. "It was considered somewhat risqué and not in keeping with the character of the fi rm that many of the partners thought it had." t the end of a corridor on the 53rd fl oor of the TD Bank Tower in Toronto, a video plays near the reception of McCa- because the CEO has a passion for art," he says. "Th en they disappear, the collection no longer has that support, and it dies on the vine." Despite the fi rm's reputation for art, Pel's committee doesn't always get its way. He looks longingly, for example, at a spot at one end of the corridor occupied by a bronze sculpture. "It's not the one I wanted to go there," he says. Downstairs on the 50th fl oor in a less pub- lic space where lawyers have their offi ces, the words of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's threat levels — low, guarded, elevat- ed, high, and severe — are written out in pierc- ing neon lights. Th e work was too controversial for a more prominent spot. Art Law and the But that sentiment has changed as the fi rm's col- lection is now revered in corporate art circles as pre- eminent among Canadian companies. "I take directors around from the National Gallery and others," says Par- kin. "Every museum that comes tells me they would give anything to have that collection. It's not for invest- ment; it's not for decoration. One might think it's to tart up the offi ce, but not McCarthys. Th ey're looking for what is relevant today." As a former commercial photographer, Pel had a nat- ural interest in the art committee at McCarthys, where anyone who's keen is welcome. He feels the committee model has helped the fi rm cement its reputation by en- suring continuity. "It's diff erent from some other corpo- rations, where all of a sudden there's an interest in art "It would have looked great at the end of that corridor, but someone decided it could off end our U.S. clients," says Pel. "I think it's quite a serious piece and it's not making fun of anyone." On the lower fl oors, the collection shares space with the debris of a busy Bay Street fi rm. Boxes spill out of offi ces into the corridors, leaving guests to won- der whether they're in fact another ironic unmarked piece of art, while another piece by Hannah, a photograph of a woman kissing a statue, faces the McCarthys tax library. For his part, Pel says some employees are more en- thusiastic than others about the collection. But he notes he fi nds out how they really feel when a work ends up moving. "We tend not to move the pieces around too much but when we do, we get a lot of comments. Peo- ple say, 'Well, that's my piece. I like it there outside my offi ce.' Th en there's others who say, 'Please move that piece. I don't want to look at it every day.' We try to ac- commodate them as much as we can." LT Th is is the second instalment in the Law Times summer series looking at law fi rms' art collections and the people who put their time into making them happen. Go to lawtimesnews.com to see video of this story. D&D-1_July26_10.indd 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 7/19/10 12:49:27 PM Photo: Michael McKiernan

• Cover
• Storied Collection
• Busted Bracelets
• Focus On Forensics/Private Investigators