Underwriting the arts: Golden State Mutual supported struggling artists and wound up with a prestigious collection.

Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Co. was founded in 1925 to give African-Americans the opportunity to buy life insurance. It was fitting then that in the decades that followed, the African-American owned company answered another need for the same population, this time as a corporate patron of the arts.

The insurer's five-story building in Los Angeles houses about 300 drawings, paintings and sculptures, many of them the work of African-American artists who have risen to prominence. Some of the same artists have their works displayed in the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the National Gallery of Art and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. But they can thank Golden State Mutual for recognizing their promise early on and lending them support.

"The company has always had an interest in helping people to do what they wanted to do," said Larkin Teasley, chairman, president and chief executive officer." We looked upon the artists as a group of individuals who needed our sponsorship. Initially they reached out to us. And whenever they had some pieces we really liked, we would go to them and purchase them."

The collection began taking shape after William Pajaud started work as an art director and artist in the company's public relations department in May 1957.According to The International Review of African American Art, Pajaud designed advertisements and produced and distributed the company's publications. But Golden State Mutual soon enlisted Pajaud as its curator. Working with a limited budget, he was able to amass what is viewed as a major collection of 20th-century African-American art.

Teasley's personal favorites include "Jessica," an etching of a turbaned black woman by Charles Wilbert White, a Social Realist painter. Teasley also loves the large murals in the lobby, the work of Charles Alston, a Harlem Renaissance artist. Depicting black explorers, settlers and workers, these murals "show the progress of African-Americans in the state of California," Teasley said.

The company's collection is so extensive that some pieces have to be stored in its vault and taken out only periodically. The public did have a chance to view much of the collection when the insurer displayed it in its auditorium to mark Golden State Mutual's 75th anniversary.

Pajaud retired in 1987. These days, his former company is not looking to buy more art. "We've got enough," said Teasley. People who approach the insurer with offers to buy get swift turndowns, he said.

"We're very proud that we selected some pieces and that we helped some people who ultimately became very famous for their art," Teasley said. "We had an important role to play in presenting them to the world because we enabled them to continue working."

Company Facts

Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Co. says it is the nation's second-largest African-American owned insurance company after North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Durham, N.C.

Golden State Mutual provides life insurance, investment products and services, and financial planning. It has more than $3 billion of insurance in force and policyholders in more than 15 states.

The company has broadened its original market to include the middle-income minority customer--those in the African-American, Latino and Asian communities with annual earnings of $20,000 to $75,000.