Contemporary Art Society

An inaugural meeting took place on the morning of 9 April 1909 at 44 Bedford Square, London, the home of Philip Morrell, and was attended by Charles Aitken, Director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery; Roger Fry, painter/critic and curator of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Charles J Holmes, painter/critic and Director of the National Portrait Gallery; Ernest Marsh, expert on Martinware pottery; DS MacColl, painter/critic and the first Keeper of the Tate Gallery's collection; Philip Morrell, a Liberal MP and Lady Ottoline Morrell, patron of the arts.

The Contemporary Art Society laid the foundation of the Tate's modern collection in the early years of the organisation.

This included work by Jeremy Deller, Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Goshka Macuga, Tony Oursler, Grayson Perry, Yinka Shonibare, Tomoko Takahashi, Gillian Wearing and Richard Wright, and commissions by Christian Boltanski, Bill Fontana and William Furlong.

Taking over in 2013, Caroline Douglas introduced a number of new purchasing schemes and special projects, launching Great Works, Valeria Napoleone XX Contemporary Art Society, the Jackson Tang Ceramics Award and partnering with Frieze Art Fair for the Collections Fund at Frieze.

[9] ARTfutures sold works by emerging artists selected by CAS curators, with the commission raising funds for the society.

In 1957 Robert Sainsbury, a major patron of the arts, gifted the CAS a sum of £1,600 to be used for the acquisition of four paintings by Francis Bacon.

Tom Bendhem served on the CAS committee from 1984 to 1992 and upon his death in 2002 left his entire art collection and a property in Kensington to the charity.

Balfour proposed that companies might buy experimental works for presentation, while the Society would reciprocate with loans or advice on purchases of art for their collections.

[minutes, 23/02/1976] Vogelpoel helped Mobil to buy prints for its new London building, which brought the Society a donation of £1,000.

In 1977, the first important corporate contact was established with De Beers, and in 1988 Consultancy Art Society Projects was formally created.

During the 1980s, the CAS became a major advisor to corporate art collections, working with, among others, ICI, Unilever, and Stanhope Properties plc.

In recent years the business has expanded to include public art projects and cultural strategies, alongside its corporate clients.

CAS Consultancy also managed the commission of a major work at the Supreme Court in London by Catherine Yass in 2019, celebrating 100 years of women in law.