Art consults available online

Real Estate Weekly, August 16, 2000

Managers Know that the art on their walls sets the tone they seek, enhancing their office environment and establishing the appropriate image. Selecting artwork, however, can be complex and time consuming.

Now, PaintingsDIRECT.com, a Web site for original art, is offering a free art consulting service to corporate customers. Candace Worth, vice president of their curatorial department and former assistant vice president of contemporary art at Christie's auction house in New York, works with corporate clients to develop an art collection that truly reflects the company's culture.

For building owners and managers, this is a wonderful service to offer tenants. It makes choosing art for offices (or public spaces) as easy as clicking a mouse. For office managers, this is a simple and cost-efficient way to decorate your space with original art that reflects your company's image. Art and framing options can be reviewed by one or many executives, each on his. or her own schedule -- without gallery hunting, without attending a slide show, without even having a meeting.

PaintingsDIRECT.com (www.PaintingsDIRECT.com) offers more than 10,000 original paintings by emerging and established artists from 36 countries. It would take years of gallery hunting to see as many choices. Worth is happy to save companies search time by going through thousands of choices to suggest works based on criteria that suit the company or space. She and her team will interact with the artist, arrange for framing and shipping, even coordinate the installation (in New York City and the surrounding tri-state area). There is no fee for PaintingDIRECT.com's consulting services, and there are paintings in the collection to suit any company's budget. There is also an unusually large selection of styles -- from landscapes and stilllifes to abstract expressionism and surrealistic art.