The Foundation
Polyglyph Analytica invests in protecting the world's cultural artefacts. The Foundation is where we do it.
Culture survives in the things people thought were ordinary at the time. A poster from an exhibition that ran six weeks. A print run of two hundred. A magazine cover.
Held for the long term
The Foundation is the not-for-profit side of Polyglyph Analytica. Its purpose is to hold the collection and to pass it on in better condition than it reached us.
The collection
Most of it is works on paper: exhibition posters, prints, limited editions, magazine covers. About half are signed by the artist.
200+
works in the collection
150+
artists represented, from one work to sixteen
Artists in the collection
Among them, in alphabetical order. The deepest holding is Gilbert & George, at sixteen works.
- Ai Weiwei
- Alex Katz
- Andy Warhol
- Anish Kapoor
- Antony Gormley
- Bridget Riley
- Cecily Brown
- Christopher Wool
- Claudette Johnson
- Cristina Iglesias
- David Hockney
- David Shrigley
- Derrick Adams
- Ed Ruscha
- Faith Ringgold
- Frank Bowling
- Frank Stella
- Gerhard Richter
- Gilbert & George
- Grayson Perry
- Jean-Michel Basquiat
- Jenny Saville
- Keith Haring
- Marina Abramović
- Martin Parr
- Nan Goldin
- Raja Ravi Varma
- Richard Prince
- Sarah Sze
- Steve McCurry
- Takashi Murakami
- Yayoi Kusama
- Yoshitomo Nara
How the collection is built
Works come from galleries' own shops, from artists directly, and from the sales that fund artists and causes: the Big Issue Marketplace, the Art Car Boot Fair, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.
That is a deliberate position. Editions and works on paper are how serious art reaches an ordinary wall, and that is where a culture keeps the thinnest record of itself.
How it is kept
Paper is fragile. It fades, discolours and breaks down with time, and most of what any collection has lost was lost to light and damp rather than to anything dramatic.
The collection is stored in a dry, UV-proof environment built to prevent exactly that. The intention is that these works outlast everyone now looking after them.