SPRINGDALE -- It's no secret that Tyson Foods Inc. has an intriguing and diverse art collection that stretches the winding halls of its corporate headquarters, though more outsiders have seen it since Crystal Bridges Museum of Art came on the scene nearly three years ago.
The collection of more than 760 paintings, sculptures, prints and photographs was started by the late Don Tyson, son of founder John W. Tyson, in the 1970s and has continued to grow under the direction and collector's eye of John Tyson, Don Tyson's son and current chairman of the board.
The works, hand-picked by father and son, include western-themed bronzes by Troy Anderson and J.D. "Jack" Woods -- generally the first casting each of Wood's series -- and 73 watercolors by prolific Arkansas painter George Dombek, as well as lithographs by Thomas Hart Benton, Ansel Adams photographs and trial proofs from Andy Warhol's Cowboys and Indians series.
The Warhols were John Tyson's first big art acquisition and marked the transition from his father's beloved Western art to contemporary art. The trial proofs, using a screen-printing process, allowed Warhol to make the same image in different color combinations. A blue John Wayne proof in the series is extremely rare, possibly one of a kind. These are said to be among his last works.
The collection is not open for viewing by the general public, but some serious art patrons attracted to the area by Crystal Bridges have nosed around enough to discover it and have made it a side trip to their jaunts to the Bentonville museum. Potential visitors to the Tyson Foods corporate art collection are at the mercy of the Tyson art team, which is comprised of consulting curator Shannon Mitchell, retired Tyson executive Archie Schaffer and Heather Chilson, the company's director of corporate services.
"Sometimes, if there's a small group coming through and the stars align perfectly," a quick tour can be arranged, John Tyson said.
"I think art's to be shared," he added. At headquarters, he hopes the artwork inspires employees to think about art and to engage in conversations about it.
"If you can just walk down the hallway and look at it differently that day, or the sunlight's on it different ... and you get a laugh, a giggle, a smile or a relaxation," then the art has carried out its intended purpose, he said.
Outside groups who have seen the collection include folks associated with the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Arizona, Fellows of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and members of the Mid-America Arts Alliance Board. A group of contemporary art collectors from Orange County in California is due to come through soon, said Mitchell, the consulting curator.
The Tyson Foods corporate art collection is catalogued in the company's The Museum System database, or TMS -- software designed for art museums, art galleries, corporate and private art collections, and for artist studios and estates to archive and to keep track of their art collections. More than 600 of the works are on display in Springdale, about 150 can be seen at the former IBP offices in Dakota Dunes, S.D., and nearly a dozen works from all-Arkansas artists is up in Tyson's Washington, D.C., location.
Tyson acquired IBP Inc. in 2001, creating the world's largest meat producer and processor. From IBP's collection, Tyson gained two larger-than-life bronze American Indians by Dave McGary that greet visitors at the main entrance to the original building of the corporate offices. Other bronze sculptures by the artist are on permanent display at the Smithsonian Museum and at the White House.
The collection includes 300 paintings, 151 sculptures, 149 prints and 121 photographs. Not all the artwork is currently on display; some pieces are shown on a rotating basis. All is organized under four major themes: the American West, Americana/agrarian landscape, pop art/abstract expressionism and contemporary Arkansas artists.
Tyson headquarters holds the largest collection of Dombek's works, a retrospective of his career as an artist. His work has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Arkansas Arts Council and also is represented at Crystal Bridges.
"It kinds of fits who we are -- barn yards and junk cars and things like that -- rocks and trees and stuff," Tyson said of Dombek's work. "I think it just evolved out of the original decision to get some of the early stuff." Dombek had a show at the headquarters in 1999, featuring about 45-50 works, and Tyson bought them all.
Dombek is represented in about 40 different corporate collections around the country but not on the scale that Tyson has acquired.
"Any artist would want to be in that type of situation, where people get to view not just a couple of paintings that were done 20 to 30 years ago," Dombek said, "but he has works from when I was in graduate school up to the present. It's particularly gratifying from my standpoint."
Other Arkansas artists represented in the collection include Alice Andrews, of Ponca; Gene Franks, of Springdale; Judith Hudson, of Little Rock; Henri Linton, of Pine Bluff,; and Pat Musick, formerly of Huntsville. Musick's Yokes on the Trail of Tears sculpture is near the visitor's parking lot; she also has an outdoor sculpture installation at Crystal Bridges.
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