May It Simply Be Beautiful?

door Enny Verhey, Curator, Delta Lloyd Group, OHRA

The Delta Lloyd Group brought along it’s collection of over 900 pieces of art when it joined forces with OHRA in 1999. The aim of the collection is to enhance office buildings and work spaces for the sake of the staff. We want employees to feel comfortable in our buildings. Furthermore, art makes a positive contribution to innovation and creativity. Art expands frameworks of perception, provides topics for discussion and encourages the breaking of established thought patterns. These conclusions are derived from a study of Delta Lloyd Group’s company collection that was completed in 2007 by the University of Groningen.

Most of the collection consists of both figurative and abstract paintings. It is important to note that these pieces of art are not predictable. Most lean toward one form of realism or another, but always in a surprising way. A basic principle in the selection of artists and their pieces of art is that each item must be about something, but what each is about should not be immediately clear. The viewer may be forced to think about the question of whether he or she in fact sees what they think they see.

In 2001, an exhibition of paintings by Lieuwe Kingma was organized at the OHRA building in Arnhem (one of the buildings of the Delta Lloyd Group). There were beautiful, warm paintings and large, impressive landscapes. There was a lavish summer landscape, a quiet winter scene, and a scene with three sycamores, all evolving from Kingma’s appealing palette. There were several flower still lifes full of atmosphere and harmony, and…finally, the warm-yellow and orange-like, thickly painted, painting containing royal artistic gestures: Yellow Tulips Against a Blue Background.

This became the choice of the employees of OHRA. “It’s so beautiful! You keep looking at it and it really makes you happy!” This painting has been hanging in one of OHRA’s boardrooms since 2001. And…for the time being, it should stay right there!