The Worst and Most Decadent Art Show of the Year.
Rubbish and
Decadence of the Modern Art in England!!
Photo:
Bunny by Sarah Lucas (1997).
From afar - and the notoriously reclusive
collector has gone out of his way to ensure that most perceptions of him are
from afar - Saatchi can seem a sinister, controlling, calculating figure. Up
close he is very different - a man of passion and enthusiasm, a bit of a
romantic, at least about artists and rats. With all the myths that surround
him, he seems to have the excessive quality of a character in fiction: the
Great Gatsby or the Last Tycoon, perhaps. Or, as his harsher critics would
have it, the sinister Kurtz from Heart of Darkness.
The Saatchi Gallery: Empty since Margaret
Thatcher abolished the GLC in 1986,
County Hall was bought for £60m in 1993 by the Shirayama Shokusan Corporation.
Charles Saatchi is a man who assiduously cultivates his own myth. Removing
yourself from the ordinary channels of communication, refusing interviews,
absenting yourself from openings and parties is not so much normal shyness as
a way of producing narratives of power and influence. In the past few years,
as some in the London art world have claimed he was losing his sure touch as a
discoverer of young art, he has taken steps to ensure that his reputation as
the man who discovered Damien Hirst is written into history. Now he is about
to unveil a monument to himself as patron of modern British art. When rumours
first circulated that Saatchi planned to close his London gallery in St John's
Wood and open his own museum in County Hall, a brisk walk upstream from the
colossally successful Tate Modern, the very idea seemed stupendous. Saatchi's
new gallery is an open defiance of Tate Modern and Tate director Nicholas
Serota; it sounded megalomaniacal even for him. But he meant it. Now the
classics of British art in his collection are displayed in the wood-paneled
debating chambers and corridors once filled with the cigarette smoke of
huddled councilors. It looks good. Saatchi has the best collection in the
world of British art from the past 15 years - a period in which British
artists, notably Damien Hirst, Rachel Whiteread, Tracey Emin, Gary Hume, Sarah
Lucas, Chris Ofili and latterly Jake and Dinos Chapman, were at the forefront
of international art in a way not seen since the early 19th century. There is
no question that Saatchi beat public collections to the best of this stuff.
Photo:
Spot Mini by Damien Hirst (2002).
Saatchi modern art collection shares space in
County Hall with, amongst others, a five-star Marriott hotel, a two-star
Travel Inn, the FA Premier League Hall of Fame, the London Aquarium, the Diana
Princess of Wales memorial fund, and the Dali Universe.