Corporate contemporary art collections in Western Europe and Turkey

Nowadays, institutions form corporate collections by carrying out their investment in culture and art area within the scope of social responsibility and at this point some institutions prefer to differ and head towards innovative, pioneer and creative contemporary art. In this context, this thesis aims at dealing with the foundation process of corporate collections in Western Europe and Turkey in terms of historical development and motivations and dealing with examples of institutions creating corporate collections of contemporary art in Western Europe and Turkey in terms of their collection, their collection policies and revealing common and different aspects in motivations to create their collection.Until the 18th century in Europe, only kings, dukes and aristocrats descending from noble families could organise art and cultural events; however, together with Industrial Revolution of the 18th and the 19th century, capital accumulated and a new rich class was born without having any social status in the aristocracy and they tried to equate themselves with aristocracy by forming art collections. In this process, by supporting, employing and protecting artists and providing facilities for their production, the bourgeoisie played a very important role as an art patronage in the development of the personal collections which constituted the bases of the corporate art by converting them into museums to convey their names to the future. On the other hand, in Turkey, since there was no economic and cultural accumulation in the first years of the Turkish Republic, Turkish art developed under the cover of the state. By forming collections itself, opening museums, supporting art and artists the state took the role of patronage. With the strengthening of the Republican regime in 1930s and the modernisation attemps in cultural, political and economic modernisation, the state banks and then private banks started to buy works from exhibitons and to form corporate collections in order to support the cultural artistic life of the society which contributed widely to the development of the Turkish art and led the start of the first corporate collections in banking sector in Turkey. Therefore, in Europe the corporate collections developed through personal art patronage, in Turkey, developed through institutions especially banks. Today, both in Western Europe and Turkey art patronage is made by corporations which got economically more powerful under the corporate social responsibility.The motivations of the companies to form corporate collections include creating a powerful and big firm image having a highly sophisticated, innovative, progressionist, advanced, prestigious towards their employees and customers, presenting a positive, energetic, intellectual, dynamic, creative atmosphere, enhancing the creativity and motivation of the employees, gaining prestige in the society, showing that the company owner is intellectual, the passion and love for arts of the company owner, using art as a corporate communication and advertisement tool, thinking art as an investment, sharing art and artist, namely the culture, by means of supporting art and artist.