Corporate art in Spain, planned like a collection, wall by wall

Spanish companies take their walls seriously. The law firm Uría Menéndez has assembled more than 200 works since 2005 around two themes, 'Geometry' and 'Knowledge', and every piece hangs in its offices. The health group DKV holds more than 850 works by over 350 artists, part of them spread through its offices to humanise the working day, chosen with an advisory committee. Iberdrola organises its collection as a map of the company, around light, nature and human ingenuity.

You can borrow the method without a foundation. Pick one theme that says something true about the firm, a material, a landscape, a geometry, and run it from reception to the last meeting room, so twenty paintings read as one scheme. Hang everything you buy, and name one person to approve: our stage photographs go straight to them. Nor is this only for banks: in May 2024 the employers' federation CEOE hosted a corporate-collecting day at which a transport company and a fashion firm presented their collections.

ARCOmadrid, each March, is where Spanish companies and institutions see the most contemporary work in one place: 211 galleries from 30 countries in 2026. Public bodies buy there too; at the 2026 fair the Ministry of Culture acquired 17 works for the Reina Sofía and IVAM 30. The fine-arts faculties are another route: Four Seasons Madrid gathered more than 500 proposals through competitions at the schools of Madrid, Málaga and Seville.

A fair or gallery piece comes at the size the artist chose, and rarely as a set. So the practical split is one named work for reception or the boardroom, and canvases made to order for the corridors, meeting rooms and private offices, matched to its colours so the floor reads as one. Where the walls outnumber the budget, we paint the whole scheme, feature canvas included. What each kind of seller offers is in the Spain art market guide.

In Spain a fit-out usually delivers space, not pictures. JLL's design-and-build arm, Tétris, works from the Castellana in Madrid and Torre Glòries in Barcelona on projects from a 550 m² office for an energy company to a 12,000 m² university campus, and none of the projects it describes mentions art. One Spanish interior studio advises that every budget, the presupuesto, should say plainly what it includes and what it leaves out. If art is not on that list, it is nobody's job.

So put it on the list early. About 75% of Madrid's office leasing is in Grade A and B+ buildings, where open floors and glazing leave few solid walls: the core, the wall behind reception, the far end of each meeting room. Send us the designer's wall schedule with the move-in date, and we come back with a size and a shortlist for each wall. See also art for corporate offices.

Spain's best-known corporate collections are contemporary: about 80% of the Banco de España's holdings date from after 1900, and geometry is one of Uría Menéndez's two themes. Spanish decorating guides call geometric designs 'an infallible choice', and at Casa Decor 2025 the designers' rooms hung mixed media with gold leaf in ochre, brown and earth tones, and textured pieces in soft beige. For an office that suggests texture and geometry in ochre, sand, deep blue and green, with one accent taken from the brand.

Spaniards have a word for the folkloric clichés of bulls, flamenco, bandits and manolas: the españolada, spread as tourist imagery under late Francoism. A client from Madrid reads it as a postcard, not a statement. Faith is a private matter for most, too: 15.9% of Spaniards called themselves practising Catholics in September 2026, so keep devotional art out of shared spaces unless the institution itself is religious. More in taste and styles in Spain.

Many Spanish collections begin with the company's own story: Telefónica shows part of its heritage in its own Gran Vía building, and Iberdrola's is built around the company itself. A painting of your first building, your plant, your port or the view from the boardroom does the same on a single wall. Send the photograph with the wall size; we suggest how it translates to canvas and paint it by hand once you are happy. A logo, crest or brand pattern works the same way, and a design can be kept exclusive to you if you ask before we start. More on paintings from your own image.

Old masters are part of the offer too. Sorolla's centenary exhibitions drew more than 2.5 million visits, and his work, like Velázquez's or Goya's, is long out of copyright, so a hand-painted reproduction at the size of your wall is straightforward; a work still in copyright needs the rights holder's permission. Or move a classic somewhere new, like the cat in a pearl earring pictured.

Health and care spaces ask for calm more than for a statement. The same decorating guides pair whites, beiges, sand and light grey with rooms meant to relax. In a clinic that means landscapes, sea, flowers and soft abstraction a patient can rest their eyes on, hung lower because people wait seated. Our care advice is simple: dust with a dry cloth and use no sprays.

Public institutions plan on a larger scale. Fundación ENAIRE hangs 445 works from its collection across 38 Spanish airports, and the Banco de España has commissioned a museum for its more than 3,500 works inside its Cibeles headquarters. Beyond the showpieces, regional offices, campuses, town halls and branches still need paintings, and a set painted in one hand gives a long corridor or a run of consulting rooms the order a collection gives a lobby. See art for hospitals and clinics.

Send the plan or a photo of each wall with its width, the ceiling height and the move-in date, on WhatsApp, through the quote form or by email. Your quote lists each wall as its own line, with size and finish, and usually arrives within one business day. Choose from some 1,300 catalogue designs or have a scheme designed for your theme and budget; order one canvas first if the partners want to see it. Every canvas is labelled with its wall and travels with a packing list, and we keep the codes on file so the next office can repeat the scheme.

Larger orders may go by air or sea freight on the route we find best, with the shipping cost confirmed before dispatch. More in the Spain wall art guide.

Each canvas can travel stretched and ready to hang, framed, or rolled; a rolled canvas, the lightest and most economical way to send a large painting, arrives without stretcher bars, and any local framer can stretch it for you.