The man who stares provocatively out of the opening pages of The History of the Saatchi Gallery holds you with his gaze, leaving you in no doubt of his powerful personality. And how entirely aposite. Charles Saatchi has held a position of supreme
"In the 1990s, when Charles Saatchi lived in a house off the King’s Road, I was surprised to see hanging in his house Robert Rauschenberg’s Rebus, one of the great American paintings of its period, which now belongs to New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
‘I’ve bought if for a year,’ he said when I went to visit him, ‘because I want to look at it for a bit.’
That comment says much of Charles’ devotion to his subject. He knew he would never be able to keep the painting, but he simply wanted to absorb and enjoy it. This passion for looking at art – and Charles looks very hard – has marked his character ever since I’ve known him. Always moving on, he makes it his business to identify the new and he invests in his enthusiasms. In so doing, he has made art into his life’s work."
The man who stares provocatively out of the opening pages of The History of the Saatchi Gallery holds you with his gaze, leaving you in no doubt of his powerful personality. And how entirely aposite. Charles Saatchi has been in a position of supreme influence over the international art market since he first started collecting in around 1970; and when he established the first Saatchi Gallery on Boundary Road, London, in 1985, this role was solidified. Displaying an unwavering eye for the new, the exciting and, of course, the profitable, Saatchi is responsible for introducing artists such as Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman and Sarah Lucas to the global stage. This new book, charting the exhibitions that the gallery has hosted, both in East London, and since the move to the King's Road space in 2008, demonstrate the vision and taste of a man who has definitively shaped the artistic consciousness of a nation. Indeed, Sir Norman Rosenthal, AnOther columnist, respected curator and a longtime colleague of Saatchi's, has called him 'the country's greatest curator.'
The History of the Saatchi Gallery is out now, published by Booth-Clibborn Editions. Sir Norman Rosenthal's monthly round-up of the best in classical, opera and contemporary music can be read here.
Text by Tish Wrigley
