Andersen Consulting*: Extract from brochure

The completion of the Andersen Consulting Fine Art Commission 1996/7 provides an ideal occasion to celebrate the creativity, invention and excellence of British Art. It powerfully expands the original brief, that of acquiring seminal works for the art collection established in 1994. The decision to commission the artist John Lessore to undertake two large paintings in celebration of the theme of 'work' and 'team spirit' is an auspicious new departure.

For fourteen weeks, in the summer of 1996, Lessore completed upward of a hundred closely observed studies documenting the interior of the offices at Globe House and Arundel Great Court, within reach of the Inner Temple. During this period, Lessore became a familiar presence in the offices, returning on several occasions to gain fresh insights. Reciprocally in these drawings, the office assumes an air of familiarity reflected in the ease with which his figures slouch, stretch over one another, tip-toe or balance their bodies in an unrehearsed routine. Lessore has charted the comings and goings, the huddles and impromptu meetings in corridors, the moments of intense solitary concentration interrupted by a ringing telephone and the close working relationships forged in the pursuit of shared objectives. When at the end of this journey, the office all but empties out, the inanimate traces of the day remain in the empty chair or in the silent murmur of an electric fan.

Preferring to work from memory and drawings rather than directly from the motif, Lessore spent the following twelve months shaping and giving form to these early impressions in the relative calm of his studio. As the painting progressed and the identity of his figures emerged, the lights in the painting dimmed or intensified. The incessant movement of office workers reached a heightened crescendo, as vertical shafts of light and the sheen of mercerised cotton suggested a luminous synthesis. Lessore has revealed the poetry in the humdrum routine of the late 20th century office. This is the modern equivalent of the world of Herman Melville's Bartleby and of Degas' The Cotton Merchants. Yet, despite the quotidian subject matter, the interlacing of figures and expanding geometry recall the complexities of Piero della Francesca's great frescoes at the Church of St. Francis at Arezzo.

These have been a constant inspiration to Lessore. Imperceptible within the vestigial and ghostly traces of the pentimenti or painted underlayers, is the struggle to achieve harmony and balance. Today, the real Globe House exists only as a sculpted memory, its ornate details erased from the London skyline, testifying to the rapid pace of change and renewal.

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