Feel like your office could do with a bit of cheering up? How about installing a sculpture from The Empire Strikes Back in the lobby? You might, understandably, think that your boss wouldn't approve. And yet it is exactly what law firm Clifford Chance has done at one of its London offices - giving artist Nick Hornby what he describes as "a hefty award and the run of their rather enormous lobby for six months". And if a solicitors' firm can manage it, surely other companies can.
"Mine is a fun project," says Hornby. Along with the Star Wars piece, he has installed "a life-size slice of a Boeing 727" and "a Victorian table whose legs were turned using a Volkswagen Polo as a lathe"
But are such sculptures really appropriate for a legal firm? Don't clients want a bit of old-fashioned reassurance and respectability when they visit their solicitors? Not according to Nigel Frank, who curates Clifford Chance's collection of art. "Art provides an amenity to staff and visitors," says Frank. "It's about making the office environment interesting."
Employees seem to approve. Simon Fletcher, secretary to the Partnership Council at Clifford Chance, is a fan of Hornby's art: "They're very powerful in their statements," he says. "The day Nick was installing his pieces, I actually had some clients come into the office," Fletcher recalls. "He was there and it created a talking point. It helps you have a different kind of dialogue."
The firm backs up Hornby's showstoppers with a collection of 1,200 pieces of art - they've even loaned some to the Royal Academy for an exhibition - and an in-house art club for employees. "It's hugely popular," says Simon Fletcher. "The talks at lunchtime and gallery tours are always oversubscribed. We've had Peter Blake [designer of the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper album cover] and Sam Taylor-Wood [maker of the celebrated video portrait of David Beckham sleeping] come and talk to the firm."
So why are blue-chip employers such as Clifford Chance so interested in art? Clearly, it adds a bit of visual excitement to an otherwise soulless environment. "Clifford Chance employees spend hours and hours in these strange hermetically sealed and artificially lit glass boxes," says Nick Hornby, "so it's great to have a new body of sculpture to interrupt their routines."
Some employers are getting more adventurous in their choices, says Hornby: "Until recently, most art on the walls of large multinationals was drab rent-a-art, which disappeared into the generic-ness of limestone floors and rows of leather Barcelona chairs," he says. "But now Bloomberg, Deutsche Bank and many others have become extremely involved in the contemporary art debate."
Financial news company Bloomberg has its own gallery and currently sponsors the London-based art fair Art Futures; Swiss bank UBS is a long-term sponsor of Tate Modern, and Deutsche Bank holds what it claims to be the "world's biggest corporate collection" of art.
On one level it makes perfect sense for financial institutions to get involved in the art world. "Art functions as an investment," says London contemporary art dealer Richard Salmon. "You can put a piece of art in a warehouse and pay warehouse fees or people can enjoy it and also store it for nothing."
But there's also the glamour of art. "You have the association of mystery, wealth, creativity and freedom," says Salmon. This is a relatively new development: "Thirty years ago, people would have thought you were completely mad if you said banks should get involved in art," he says.
That changed with stockbroker Paine Webber in the early 1980s, thinks Salmon. Of their New York office, he says: "You went into a very, very glamorous space instead of a boring office. It meant you could think whatever you wanted to think about Paine Webber.
"There's also a democratic aspect to contemporary art. The message is that you don't need any particular background to be an artist and hit the jackpot. Equally, the thinking goes, if you get an account at that bank, you'll also hit the jackpot."
But what if you want to imbue your workplace with some of that "mystery, creativity and freedom" and don't have the deep pockets of Clifford Chance, which spends what Nigel Frank coyly describes as "a five-figure sum" each year on art?
One option is to hire art. Little Van Gogh is a company that offers a changing selection of art for offices from £125 a month. Chloe Adams, director of the company, sees the discussion that art can provoke among colleagues as a key benefit. "It gets people bickering about what they like and don't like," Adams says. In one office "employees follow us around the office when we visit, out of curiosity about what they're going to get."
"I've had loads of 'What the hell is that you've put on the wall!'" agrees Julian Day of Numasters, another company providing office art. "That makes it a talking piece. Even if people don't like it, that causes points of view and debate."
But does such "bickering" really count as a benefit for staff? Dr Sandi Mann, senior lecturer in occupational psychology at the University of Central Lancashire, is not so sure. "Art can be a good talking point, so in that sense it is a good thing to have in the office," says Mann. "It can also cause quite strong views, which can be quite bonding.
"But also it can cause factions with the art appreciators versus the critics. There are likely to be some who think it a waste of money and others who think it adds value, so a split is formed."
And art is not the first thing to think about when it comes to employee satisfaction. "I think art is appreciated if people are generally already satisfied at work. If there are job cuts, no canteen subsidies, poor-quality desks and chairs, then employees are likely to be a bit miffed really at this investment," says Mann. "We need to have our basic needs satisfied before we can appreciate the better stuff in life."
For employers who do decide to invest in art, Julian Day's advice is not to cut corners. "Sometimes people balk at the costs of buying art," says Day. He recalls one large company he advised, which "spent millions" setting up a research centre in Oxford. Day sourced prints and suggested sculpture similar in style to Kandinsky, a favourite of one of the board members. "But he just went out and bought 40 Kandinsky posters from Woolworths or wherever."
"It lets the staff down," says Day. "They've created a great impressive building and they decorate it with posters, which brings it down a peg or two."
And what kind of art works in an office? "The basic rule of thumb is: stay away from religion and nudity," says Day. "Apart from that, anything goes."
The simple things can sometimes work best. "In one meeting room without windows, I placed five little pictures just of grass," says Day. "It allows people to escape a boring meeting or take a moment's breath."
— Giles Morris