Advertising mogul Saatchi, the titan of contemporary art patronage who has invested extensively in Young British Artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, conceived the idea for a free gallery to show rotating exhibits drawn from his massive personal collection.
An earlier incarnation of the gallery, on London’s South Bank near the Tate Modern, charged admission, and was closed down in 2005 due to a property dispute.
Champion of contemporary art
The new Saatchi Gallery, complete with educational facilities and a space dedicated to the work of emerging artists who are invited to sell their work commission-free on the Saatchi Online site, represents the most monumental effort to date in Saatchi’s ongoing crusade to gain wider public exposure for contemporary art. The Saatchi is particularly dedicated to students, offering education packs and guided tours to school groups of all ages.
"We hope that free admission will enable many more state schools to organise school visits and bring in more students who can't always afford normal gallery charges. Free entry can only help spread the interest in contemporary art," Saatchi is quoted as saying in Maev Kennedy’s July 16, 2007 Guardian article “Saatchi’s pledge for new art gallery”.
While most museums in London offer free admission to their permanent collections and selected exhibits, special curated shows and touring exhibits are generally subject to charge. All exhibits at the Saatchi Gallery will be free, thanks to sponsorship from Saatchi’s preferred art dealer, contemporary art auctioneers Phillips de Pury.
In addition to the celebrated British artists most commonly associated with the Saatchi Collection, contemporary artists from around the world will gain exposure. Prominent international artists exhibited at the Saatchi’s previous spaces have included Cy Twombly, Richard Serra, Nan Goldin, Charles Ray, Andy Warhol and Kiki Smith.
Private collection
The Saatchi Gallery dwarfs other private collection museums, with 70,000 square feet of space on three levels, in a stately listed Georgian building formerly the Duke of York’s Regiment Headquarters. The 15 exhibition rooms, painted bold white and suffused with radiant light from above, make excellent use of their high ceilings and elegant proportions to create a beautiful but suitably blank canvas for the works on display.
The Gallery will open to the public October 9, with an inaugural show of contemporary Chinese artists entitled Revolution Continues: New Chinese Art. The exhibit showcases sculpture, painting and multimedia by artists including photorealist Zhang Haiyin and “Political Pop” artist Wang Guangyi. The show reflects a growing global interest in cultural developments in China as the nation undergoes transformation in the twenty-first century.
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