Saatchi's Thinking BIg auction fails to fire

In a report on Charles Saatchi's Thinking Big auction staged by Christie's, the Financial Times says the collector "took a sledgehammer to prevailing notions of how to sell work by emerging artists." The no-estimates, no-reserve approach to the auction of 50 large works from his collection delivered poor results for many artists and dealers were appalled by the everything-must-go strategy. It was a "strong-arm tactic" says Simon Lee whose gallery represents one of the artists in the sale, a tactic designed to force dealers into bidding to support their artists' prices. Read more...

Image: Charles Saatchi

Saatchi rolls out a novel auction game plan

Charles Saatchi is planning an auction of 50 of his largest sculptures and installations with Christie's - works so large they will be exhibited in a disused London postal depot instead of Christie's HQ. And it will be an auction with a difference from any conducted by Christie's since the 1970s: no lot will have a reserve price or estimate, an idea reported to have come from Saatchi. Read more...
Image: Charles Saatchi

Charles Saatchi launches a surprise attack on the art world

Charles Saatchi has launched a surprise attack on the art world in the Guardian saying, "even a show-off like me finds this new, super-rich art-buying crowd vulgar and depressingly shallow." This link takes you to another Guardian article by arts correspondent Mark Brown on Saatchi's view of the buyers, dealers and curators who populate the contemporary art world.

Image: a super yacht moored in Venice for the Biennale

Saatchi eyes up Korea

Charles Saatchi, who is always on the lookout for new art/artists, is set to curate a show of contemporary Korean art at his King's Road gallery in 2012. He has set the ball rolling at the Saatchi space this year with Fantastic Ordinary, a group show organised by the non-profit foundation Korea Eye.

Image: Kim Hyun-soo, Breik (2008), Fantastic Ordinary exhibition, Saatchi Gallery London, July 2010

Saatchi gallery and art gifted to the nation

Charles Saatchi is gifting his London gallery to the nation along with more than 25 million pounds worth of art to secure the institution's future as a showcase for emerging artists. More than 200 works will be donated including Tracey Emin's signature My Bed (1998) and Jake and Dinos Chapman's Tragic Anatomies (1996). The gallery will continue to operate under the Saatchi masthead until he retires when it will be renamed the Museum of Contemporary Art, London. The running costs are to be met through sponsorship, catering, retailing and hall hire and the foundation set up to run the gallery will have the right to buy and sell art.

Image: Charles Saatchi

School of Saatchi

Artist Eugenie Scrase has won BBC Two's School of Saatchi show with her tree trunk impaled on a length of fence. The 20 year old beat five finalists to win a place in super collector Charles Saatchi's exhibition Newspeak: British Art Now at the Hermitage and studio space for three years.

In School of Saatchi, a four part BBC Two talent contest, the collector (like the invisible boss in Charlie's Angels) never appeared on the show, which was fronted by a panel of four - artist Tracey Emin, critic Matthew Collings, Art Collector Frank Cohen, and Head of Art Gallery at the Barbican Kate Bush. Of the 3000 people who applied to get on the programme, 12 were left by the start of the first episode and they were whittled down to six finalists chosen for their potential to develop over a ten week period. In the manner of reality TV they were given tasks to perform, including being asked to make a life drawing of a nude woman, produce an outdoor installation for the beach at Hastings in southern England, and create a work to be displayed inside Sudley Castle. The six finalists were also given the task of creating an exhibition for one night only at London's Saatchi Gallery.

Although described as "reclusive" and "camera shy" Saatchi certainly knows how to do 'look at me' as he goes about the business of buying and selling art and scouting new talent.

Images: Eugenie Scrace's winning work and the School of Saatchi judges Matthew Collings, Tracey Emin, Frank Cohen and Kate Bush