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The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art, opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985 in order to show his sizeable (and changing) collection to the public. It has occupied different premises, first in North London, then the South Bank by the River Thames and Chelsea (opening to the public in 2007). Saatchi's collection, and hence the gallery's shows, have had distinct phases, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving on to the Damien Hirst-led Young British Artists and more recently promoting shows purely of painting.
The gallery has been a major – if not the major – influence on art in Britain since its opening. It has also had a history of media controversy, which it has courted, and has had extremes of critical reaction. Many artists shown at the gallery are unknown not only to the general public but also to the commercial art world: showing at the gallery has provided a springboard to launch careers.
St John's Wood
The Saatchi gallery opened in 1985 in a disused paint factory in Boundary Road, St John's Wood, London, and ran a series of exhibitions, showing many American artists such as Jeff Koons, Ashley Bickerton, David Salle, Carrol Dunham, Kenny Scharff, Philip Guston, Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Richard Serra, Brice Marden, Bruce Nauman, Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt and Alex Katz, many of whom were to influence the subsequent generation of Young British Artists who followed in the 1990's. The Saatchi Gallery in Boundary Road was unusual in London for its large, open space, filled with light reflected by high white walls and its 30,000 sq feet of gallery space devoted to recent art.
In an abrupt move, Saatchi sold much of his collection of US art, and invested in a new generation of British artists, exhibiting them in shows with his own title Young British Artists (YBAs). The core of the artists had been brought together by Damien Hirst in 1988 in a seminal show called Freeze. Saatchi augmented this with his own choice of purchases from art colleges and "alternative" artist-run spaces in London. His first showing of the YBAs was in 1992, where the star exhibit was a vitrine by Hirst containing a shark in formaldehyde and entitled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. This was funded by Saatchi.
More recently Saatchi has been dismissive of the importance of Freeze:
Saatchi's promotion of these artists dominated UK art throughout the nineties and brought them to worldwide notice. Among the artists in the groundbreaking series of shows were Jenny Saville, Sarah Lucas, Gavin Turk, Jake and Dinos Chapman and Rachel Whiteread. (Tracey Emin was initially hostile to Saatchi and was only finally included in the 1997 Sensation show.)
Sensation opened in September 1997 at the Royal Academy in London to much controversy and showed 110 works by 42 artists from the Saatchi collection. The show moved to Berlin and then in 1999 to New York.
Meanwhile other shows with different themes were held in the gallery itself. In 1998 Saatchi launched a new movement of artists led by Martin Maloney in a show entitled New Neurotic Realism (in two parts). This did not achieve the success of the YBAs and was not repeated. In 2000 Ant Noises (an anagram of "sensation"), also in two parts, tried surer ground with work by Hirst, Lucas, Saville, Whiteread, the Chapmans, Turk, Emin and Chris Ofili.
County Hall
In April 2003 the gallery moved to County Hall, the Greater London Council's former headquarters on the South Bank, occupying 40,000 ft² (3,700 m²) of the ground floor. There were 1,000 guests at the launch, which included a "nude happening" of 200 naked people staged by artist Spencer Tunick.
The opening exhibition included a retrospective by Damien Hirst, who was, however, not involved with it, having previously fallen out with Saatchi. As well as work by other YBAs, such as Jake and Dinos Chapman and Tracey Emin, there was the inclusion of some longer established artists including John Bratby, Paula Rego and Patrick Caulfield.
In 2004, Saatchi's recent acquisitions (including Stella Vine) were featured in New Blood, a show of mostly little-known artists working in a variety of media, including installation and machinery. It received a hostile critical reception, which caused Saatchi to speak out angrily and uncharacteristically against the critics. *
On 24 May, 2004, a fire in the Momart storage warehouse destroyed many works from the collection, including the major Tracey Emin work Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–95 ("the tent"), and Jake and Dinos Chapman's tableau Hell. Saatchi was reported to be distraught at the loss. One art insurance specialist valued the lost work at £50m.
In 2005 Saatchi showed a major change of direction with the announcement of a year-long, three-part series (subsequently extended to two years and seven-part), The Triumph of Painting. The opening exhibition focused on a number of already established European painters, including Marlene Dumas, Martin Kippenberger, Luc Tuymans and Peter Doig, who had not previously received such significant exposure in the UK. Future shows in the series are scheduled to introduce Britain to young painters from America like Dana Schutz and Germans such as Matthias Weischer, as well as Saatchi's choice of up and coming British talent.
At the same time, Saatchi sold works from his YBA collection, beginning in December 2004 with Hirst's iconic shark for nearly £7 million (he had bought it for £50,000 in 1991), and was dismissive of the historic longevity of the YBAs (apart from Hirst).
The gallery's tenancy of County Hall had ongoing difficulties with Makoto Okamoto, London branch manager of the owners, who Saatchi complained had kicked artworks and sealed off the disabled toilets*.On September 27, 2005 the gallery announced they would be moving to new premises. On October 7, 2005 a court case began against the gallery, brought by County Hall landlords, Cadogan Leisure Investments, and owners Shirayama Shokusan Co Ltd, for alleged breach of conditions, including a two-for-one ticket offer in Time Out magazine and exhibition of work in unauthorised areas. The judgement went against the gallery, who were forced to relinquish the premises immediately. There is currently a halt to London shows while new premises are being prepared. A selection from The Triumph of Painting is on exhibition in Leeds.
Chelsea
The gallery is currently refurbishing a 50,000 square foot space in the Duke of York's HQ building on Kings Road, London, near to Sloane Square. A virtual tour is available on the gallery web site and shows spacious rooms in classic "white wall" gallery style.
Statistics
- At County Hall the gallery received 600,000 visitors a year.
- There have been over 1,000 school visits.
Controversy
- Julian Schnabel, Sean Scully and (particularly) Sandro Chia complained about the disposal of their work from the collection. They had assumed it was part of a permanent collection, though this had never been promised.
- In 1997, in Sensation, London, Marcus Harvey's giant painting of Myra Hindley made from children's hand prints, provoked an outcry from the parents of the murdered children. It was attacked with eggs and ink and had to be restored.
- Chris Ofili's Holy Virgin Mary in Sensation in New York offended Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who had not seen the show but still called the work an "aggressive vicious, disgusting attack on religion", and threatened to withdraw funding from the Brooklyn Museum. This did not happen and the show went ahead. Nevertheless, the exhibition was refused by the National Gallery of Australia, which had been scheduled to show it.
- In March 2001 police visited the gallery's exhibition I Am a Camera, which featured Tierney Gearon's photos of her two young children, including a naked pose. The press reported police threats seize the work, but this was denied by the police and no further action was taken.
- In 2004, media controversy ensued over two paintings by ex-stripper, Stella Vine. One was of Princess Diana called Hi Paul Can You Come Over, showing the Princess with blood dripping from her lips. The other was of drug user Rachel Whitear, whose body was being exhumed at the time; Whitear's parents and the police appealed for the painting to be withdrawn,* but it was not.
- In 2004 the Stuckists reported Saatchi to the Office of Fair Trading alleging unfair competition. The complaint was not upheld. They also picketed the opening of The Triumph of Painting claiming that Saatchi had stolen their ideas. (Vine had previously been involved with the Stuckists.)
Shows at the Saatchi Gallery
(this list is not complete)
St John's Wood
- Young British Artists
- New Neurotic Realism
- Ant Noises
- I Am a Camera
County Hall
- Damien Hirst
- The Chapman Brothers
- New Blood
- Galleon & Other Stories
- The Triumph of Painting
Chelsea
forthcoming:- The Triumph of Painting
See also
The Sensation exhibition
References
Tierney Gearon show
External links
- The Saatchi Gallery
- Pictures of the gallery at County Hall and highlights of the collection there
- BBC report on the move to the new Chelsea location
- BBC story on the court case between the gallery and its landlords.
- BBC story on warehouse fire
- The Stuckists' criticisms
Books
- Sarah Kent, "Shark Infested Waters: The Saatchi Collection of British Art in the 90s", Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd, 2003, ISBN 0856675849
- Rita Hatton and John A. Walker, "Supercollector, a Critique of Charles Saatchi", The Institute of Artology, 3rd edition 2005, paperback, ISBN 0954570227
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"Saatchi Gallery"