Saatchi Gallery Totally Explained

Everything about The Saatchi Gallery totally explained

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 2008). 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, followed by shows purely of painting and more recently promoting once again art from America in an exhibition entitled USA Today at the Royal Academy in London.
The gallery has been a 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.

Boundary Road

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 Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Richard Serra, Brice Marden, Bruce Nauman, Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt, Alex Katz, Jeff Koons and Philip Guston 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 ft (2787.0912 m2) 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 two part exhibition entitled Neurotic Realism, though widely attacked by critics the exhibition included many artists who were later recognised as international stars including; Cecily Brown, Ron Mueck, Noble and Webster, Dexter Dalwood, Martin Maloney, Chantal Joffe, Michael Raedecker and David Thorpe. 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 hadn't 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'd 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, though the gallery had already announced it was moving to take on the entire Duke of York’s HQ building in Chelsea. There is currently a halt to London shows while these new premises are being prepared. A selection from The Triumph of Painting was exhibited in Leeds Art Gallery and new American art at the Royal Academy in London.

"Your Gallery" on Saatchi website

In 2006, during the period in limbo between premises, the Saatchi Gallery website began an open-access section, the most well-known aspect of which is called Your Gallery, where artists can upload up to 8 works of art and a biography onto their own page. Over 20,000 artists have done so, and the site receives an estimated 40 million hits a day. In October 2006 the Saatchi Gallery in association with the Guardian newspaper opened the first ever reader-curated exhibition, showing the work of 10 artists registered on Your Gallery. In November the Saatchi Gallery launched a new site within Your Gallery exclusively for art students, called Stuart. Art students from all over the world can have their own home pages with images of their art, photos, lists of their favourite artists, books, films and television shows, and links to their friends' home pages. The site also allows students to chat online with each other, enabling art students across the globe to talk and exchange ideas about their art work. There are other spaces on Your Gallery for a forum, a daily art magazine, blogs, videos and for meeting new people. One new feature was added beginning 2007 called "Museums around the World" where over 3300 museums can now be visited online, showing high-lights of their collections, exhibitions and other relevant information.

Chelsea

The gallery is currently refurbishing a space in the Duke of York's Headquarters on Kings Road, London, near to Sloane Square. A virtual tour is available on the gallery website 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

In 1989 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 hadn't 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 didn't 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 to seize the work, but this was denied by the police and no further action was taken.

In 2004, media controversy arose 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 wasn't 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.)

In 2006 the work of several artists in "USA Today", an exhibition of contemporary American art from the Saatchi Gallery at the Royal Academy in London, provoked controversy in the media and among some Royal Academicians who called for certain works to be installed in an 'adult-only' room. A notice advising 'parental guidance' before viewing the work of Dash Snow and Gerald Davis was posted by the Royal Academy, on a wall outside the room in which the controversial works were hung: Dash Snow's 'Fuck the Police', in which newspaper cuttings relating to police corruption are smeared with the artist's own semen, and a painting entitled Monica by Gerald Davis in which a young woman engages in fellatio.

Artists shown at the Saatchi Gallery

Boundary Road

1985

Donald Judd

Brice Marden

Cy Twombly

Andy Warhol

1986

Carl Andre

Sol Lewitt

Robert Ryman

Frank Stella

Dan Flavin

1987

Jeff Koons

Carroll Dunham

1988

Leon Golub

Philip Guston

Sigmar Polke

1989

Robert Mangold

Bruce Nauman

1990

Leon Kossoff

Frank Auerbach

Lucian Freud

1991

Richard Artschwager

Andreas Serrano

Cindy Sherman

1992

Damien Hirst

Rachel Whiteread

1993

Sarah Lucas

Marc Quinn

1994

Jenny Saville

Paula Rego

1995

Gavin Turk

Glenn Brown

Gary Hume

1996

Janine Antoni

Tony Oursler

Richard Prince

Charles Ray

Kiki Smith

1997

Thomas Ruff

Thomas Schütte

1998

David Salle

John Currin

Laura Owens

Lisa Yuskavage

1999

Alex Katz

Ron Mueck

2000

Boris Mikhailov

County Hall

Damien Hirst

The Chapman Brothers

New Blood

Galleon & Other Stories

The Triumph of Painting

Chelsea

forthcoming:

The Triumph of Painting

The Revolution Continues: New Chinese Art

Out Of Focus: Photography Now

The Power Of Paper

Books

Sarah Kent, "Shark Infested Waters: The Saatchi Collection of British Art in the 90s", Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd, 2003, ISBN 0-85667-584-9.

Rita Hatton and John A. Walker, "Supercollector, a Critique of Charles Saatchi", The Institute of Artology, 3rd edition 2005, paperback, ISBN 0-9545702-2-7

USA Today

The Triumph Of Painting

The Triumph Of Painting, Supplementary Volume

100 The Work That Changed British Art

Hell, Jake & Dinos Chapman

Paula Rego

Young Americans

Stephan Balkenhol

Fiona Rae & Gary Hume

Duane Hanson

Shark Infested Waters, The Saatchi Collection Of British Art In The 90's

Young German Artists 2

Sensation

Alex Katz: 25 Years Of Painting

Young Americans 2

Neurotic Realism

Eurovision

Ant Noises 1

Ant Noises 2

The Arts Council Gift

I Am A Camera

New Labour

Young British Art

Saatchi Decade

Boris Mikhailov: Case History

Damien Hirst

Citations

Further Information

Get more info on 'Saatchi Gallery'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://saatchi_gallery.totallyexplained.com">Saatchi Gallery Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.