About

Our aim is to provide emerging artists with a space beyond the galleries in which their work is usually seen, and to provide ourselves and our clients with the opportunity to engage with the conversations that are being had within contemporary art practice. Art is a praxis for vital conversations at the forefront of social, cultural, and political change, and it is important that we as a responsible business are engaging with those conversations.

Being a small part of the community of artists, galleries, and art programmes is a privilege. We are proud to have a long-standing relationship supporting the wonderful Art Night festival, and are actively seeking opportunities to support the arts in our local communities.

History of the Collection

Simmons & Simmons has been collecting modern and contemporary art since the 1980s, led by Stuart Evans, a former Partner at the firm. Initially Stuart concentrated on purchasing small paintings and drawings by British artists of the Modern period, (Bell, Bomberg, Fry, Redpath, etc) and prints by established contemporary British and American artists (Hodgkin, Kossoff, Lichtenstein, Oldenberg, etc).

Having cut his teeth on the Modern scene, Stuart became more and more exposed to the work of London-based emerging contemporary artists. In 1993 Stuart decided to shift the focus of the collection to acquiring the works of the contemporary artists who were generating excitement within the art world and beyond. In doing so, Stuart assembled a collection which reflected the energy, commitment and diversity of the emerging Young British Artists he had seen around London. To this day, we continue to collect the work of emerging, early career artists.

Stuart enlisted the help of now-renowned art dealer, Thomas Dane, to guide the growth of collection. With Thomas Dane’s help, Simmons acquired works of art which both challenged traditional modes of corporate collecting, whilst also taking care to ensure that the works suited a living and breathing working environment.

The way in which a law firm is governed required that Stuart operated within some form of consensus. A number of our colleagues have strong ideas on what art is (or is not). Numerous works within the collection challenge those ideas, and present challenging ideas in of themselves (Gary Hume’s Ugly Self-Portrait Series has elicited rather poetic objections from our colleagues). Nevertheless, the strong reactions mean that we are doing something right. Whatever art may be, it should at least make one think, and in that Stuart has succeeded in creating a challenging and thought-provoking collection. The working environment at Simmons has undoubtedly been enhanced by the conversations that take place in front of Rachel Whiteread’s Demolished, or  Rachel Jones’, Sisters.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the collection is the development of relationships with the artists from whom we have acquired works. Once an artist enters our collection it is a joy to follow the course of their career. We love to host artists talks in order to give our colleagues insight into the artist’s practice.

We have also provided legal services for artists. In 1991 we advised Damien Hirst in relation to the Woodstock Street venue for his seminal In and Out of Love show. In 1995, Tracey Emin presented the firm with Outside Myself (Monument Valley, reading Exploration of the Soul) together with a copy of the book itself, for advice in relation to the Tracey Emin Museum. She subsequently paid us with her neon text piece Trust Me for further advice. Abigail Lane gave us For His own Good for legal work on a studio move. Michael Landy presented us with one of the three drawings we now own relating to his Breakdown project in return for property law advice.

To this day the collection remains true to its original objective of supporting early career artists, operating in the communities that we do, by acquiring significant work.