Law firms try to shake up old image with new, bold art made specially for them

When Australian artist Jonathan Zawada was putting the finishing touches this month on a 36-foot-by-12-foot acrylic painting that blends the natural landscape of mountains with the pixelated virtual reality of the video game world, it was not at his Los Angeles studio. And the work will not be featured in an art gallery.

Zawada was painting a wall inside the downtown Washington offices of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, the global law firm that commissioned his work for the firms new office. The yet-to-be-named artwork, which is made entirely of brightly colored triangles, takes up a wall of Pillsburys first-floor conference center and can be seen from the street through the buildings floor-to-ceiling glass windows. It is the first time that Zawada, whose artwork is typically in private collections, has created a piece for a private company.

Corporate law firms, which for many evoke images of stuffy oil paintings and oriental rugs, are increasingly home to never-before-seen works by artists who trade in light installations, lithographs and metal sculptures.

The trend is a stark contrast from a generation ago, when law partners were known to amass expensive art collections. Of course, many law firms still maintain expansive, curated collections. But increasingly, law firms are commissioning artists to create tailor-made pieces that fit the more modern architecture and aesthetics of the firms. The phenomenon is playing out at law firms across the city.

The main lobby of Covington & Burling, the Districts largest law firm and anchor tenant at CityCenter DC, will soon be home to Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diezs first major installation in the Northeast, which will incorporate natural light coming through the buildings glass walls.

McDermott Will & Emery, which in 2013 relocated its Washington office to a newly designed building on Capitol Hill, commissioned two pieces a series of 17 lithographs by New York City-based artist Peter Coffin and a 20-foot LED lightbox by Spencer Finch, the Brooklyn-based artist who was later selected to offer the only artwork commissioned for the National September 11 Memorial Museum. The lightbox Finch created for McDermott, Summer Afternoon, 1863, Washington, D.C., re-creates the afternoon sunlight at the street corner in Washington where Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln passed each other regularly during the summer of 1863.

Law firms went from, Okay, we have to have some things on the wall, to, We should have some nice paintings, to now, which is, Im interested in art and I want to have something that can reflect the firms vision and how we see ourselves through works of art, said Jean Efron, an art consultant who worked with McDermott and has consulted for more than 100 law firms in a 36-year career.

As that transition took place, traditional standbys such as hunting prints, botanicals and maps fell out of favor.

The shift in how law firms approach art reflects a change in how firms think about the design of their workspace and the impression they want to leave with clients and the public.

The change reflects the times, Efron said. I see firms being more interested in what younger partners would like. Theyre looking to future leadership. Years ago, one might say the senior partners might have been buying for themselves.

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Law firms try to shake up old image with new, bold art made specially for them