Monday, 25 November 2002
Charles Saatchi the advertising tycoon whose largesse has almost single-handedly sustained modern British art, has issued a blunt critique of its most cutting edge institution, the Turner prize.
Charles Saatchi the advertising tycoon whose largesse has almost single-handedly sustained modern British art, has issued a blunt critique of its most cutting edge institution, the Turner prize.
The multi-millionaire patron, whose 3,000-piece art collection includes works by many nominees for the award, dismissed its latest shortlist as "pseudo-controversial rehashed claptrap."
Saatchi, 59, said he could not understand why a series of 24 ethnographic sculptures holding McDonald's food by the British brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman – for which he paid £1m last month – was passed over by the judges.
Instead, he said, the contenders for this year's prize, which include a multi-coloured Perspex ceiling and the retelling of a pornographic film in pink letters, showed that those in charge of awarding the £20,000 prize were out of touch.
The broadside from the advertising executive turned art collector is the second example this month of the Turner prize proving its enduring ability to inspire as much annoyance as admiration in aesthetic circles. Kim Howells, the Culture minister and 1960s art student, emerged from a viewing of finalists' work to describe it as "conceptual bullshit".
Mr Saatchi, who was voted the most influential figure in the art world for next month's edition of Art Review magazine, said the latest work of the Chapman brothers, famed for their 21 child-sized mannequins sporting genitalia on their faces, was the sort of art that the Turner prize should have been showcasing.
He told The Sunday Telegraph: "That is what great art should be. Something that gives real visual pleasure and makes you sit up and think, not the pseudo-controversial rehashed claptrap that Turner judges actually believe is cutting-edge art."
