Sensation! British movers and shakers are losing their grip on international art

By Louise Jury, Arts Correspondent
Thursday, 28 October 2004

They are the most powerful players in the multimillion-pound world of art, organising exhibitions that attract thousands or selling works that make headline news - and many, including Charles Saatchi, are based in Britain.

They are the most powerful players in the multimillion-pound world of art, organising exhibitions that attract thousands or selling works that make headline news - and many, including Charles Saatchi, are based in Britain.

But today, in the third annual list of the men and women who matter published by an art magazine, Britain appeared to be losing its grip with the millionaire collector Mr Saatchi falling from sixth to 17th place, having held the top spot in 2002.

Other British names, including the Turner Prize-winning artist Damien Hirst and gallery owners Jay Jopling, Victoria Miro, Maureen Paley and Sadie Coles, have all fallen in the rankings chosen by international critics and academics. Nicholas Serota, the director of the Tate galleries, claimed a place in the top 10 and there are some British "newcomers".

Anish Kapoor, another Turner Prize winner who stunned Americans this year with a giant new work, Cloud Gate, in Chicago, makes his first entry at number 73. Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover, founders of the Frieze art fair, which brought thousands of art-lovers and international dealers to London this month, leap in at 32.

This list, also known as the Power 100, in Art Magazine shows America retaining its dominance as the powerhouse of the art market, by virtue of the immense wealth of its collectors. But the list also suggests that as countries such as China stand up to be counted, Britain appears to be losing its influence.

Mr Saatchi topped the rankings when they were launched three years ago but is now replaced by the controversial American dealer Larry Gagosian, who made a major impact in London this year with a spectacular new gallery at King's Cross.

More controversially, Jack Vettriano, the self-taught Scottish artist shunned by major galleries but adored by the public, squeezes in at 100. But there is no space for Tracey Emin or curators such as Norman Rosenthal at the Royal Academy.

Rebecca Wilson, the Art Review's editor, said that Americans remained dominant, but the seats of influence were shifting. "There are countries that are entering the list in a bigger way than before. China is much more prominent than in the past, as is Germany."

The list was not an indicator of artists or dealers in long-term decline, she said, simply a pointer to what had been most exciting in the past year.

Mr Serota maintained third place by virtue of several excellent exhibitions, including Brancusi and Hopper, and initiatives such as encouraging leading artists to donate works. The Scandinavian-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson makes 29th place on the back of his giant sun installation that thrilled Tate Modern visitors last year.

By contrast, Mr Saatchi has proved less successful with his new gallery on the South Bank, which opened with the much criticised exhibition, New Blood. Yet he should not be written off. "He's still the highest ranked British collector. He's still buying and apparently buying more interesting work," said Ms Wilson. Artists on the list tend to be those with financial as well as artistic clout. Money alone will not suffice. Hirst's ranking has gone down because of the poor critical reaction to his collaboration with the photographer David Bailey, she said. But it gets Vettriano on to the list.

"He's not had a major museum show but his past painting sold for £800,000 and he gets £500,000 royalties from images on postcards. He's the highest-selling Scottish artist," she said.

Zaha Hadid and Will Alsop, architects, get a mention. Hadid, who was born in Baghdad but is based in London, moves up a place to 20 after winning the prestigious Pritzker Prize for the Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati. Alsop is a new entrant at 96 for designing several galleries.

Other British entrants are: Nicholas Logsdail, owner of the Lisson Gallery, whose artists include Sol LeWitt, Kapoor and Santiago Sierra, up from 77 to 26; Richard Green, Britain's top dealer by sales with a £95m turnover; Toby Webster, director of The Modern Institute in Glasgow; and Harry Blain and Graham Southern, owners of the Haunch of Venison gallery in London. Hotly tipped for inclusion next year are a younger generation. Among them are Jens Hoffmann, the new curator at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, and the dealer-curator duo of David Risley and Soraya Rodriguez, whose Zoo Art Fair this month was dedicated to London galleries under three years old.

New York may have the collectors and the big money which makes the whole dizzying art world go round. But London retains a buzz.

THE 10 MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE IN WORLD ART

1 Larry Gagosian (Position last year: 4) Known as "GoGo", Gagosian built up major businesses in Los Angeles and New York before moving into London. Now owns the biggest private gallery in the capital.

2 Glenn D Lowry (14)The director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York for the past decade, has directed $850m expansion plans that will see the opening of new headquarters in Manhattan.

3 Nicholas Serota (3) The director of the Tate galleries is sometimes criticised for keeping a tight rein on his empire, but few doubt his dynamic influence.

4Maurizio Cattelan (24) The Italian artist captured British attention when he hung a stuffed horse from the ceiling of Tate Britain - it later sold at auction for $2.1m. Known for his love of controversy.

5Samuel Keller (15) The director of the Art Basel fair since 2000, and the driving force behind its offshoot, Art Basel Miami Beach. Known for his marketing innovation and stylish venues.

6 Dakis Joannou (10) The Greek industrialist and collector made himself the most imposing Mediterranean figure in the arts when he opened the Deste Foundation in 1983.

7William Ruprecht (new) Took over as chief executive officer of Sotheby's auctioneers after Diana Brooks departed in 2000 over the price-fixing scandal. Has since presided over a substantial improvement in the company's position.

8Ronald Lauder (1) The cosmetics millionaire has been a major fundraiser for the new headquarters of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he is the chairman.

9Robert Storr (new) Highly regarded curator at the Museum of Modern Art, moved on to the Institute of Fine Arts, New York.

10Takashi Murakami (7): One of the Japanese artist's major works will feature in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.

From pickled sharks to the world of business: the expansion of an artist's empire

By Jonathan Brown and Tim Walker
Wednesday, 20 October 2004

Damien Hirst's soaring reputation as an artist has been matched only by the rapid growth in his personal wealth.

Damien Hirst's soaring reputation as an artist has been matched only by the rapid growth in his personal wealth.

Even before Monday night, when with characteristic alchemy he converted the contents of his failed restaurant Pharmacy into a personal payday of £9.6m, he was worth more than £35m.

Prices paid for his works are riding high. According to artprice.com, which provides information to the fine art world, £100 invested in a Damien Hirst in 1997, before Pharmacy even opened its doors, would now be worth £389. This is a return of about 30 times greater than the same amount invested in the FTSE 100 over the same period.

Last year, at his first exhibition since 1995, Romance in the Age of Uncertainty held at the White Cube, Hirst made £11m, making him Britain's most successful conceptual artist. He used most of the money to buy back 12 pieces from his former mentor Charles Saatchi, including his pickled shark, sheep and cows.

The deal was brokered by Jay Jopling of the White Cube. Hirst and Saatchi fell out after riding the Britart wave together from the early 1990s. The advertising tycoon saw a phenomenal return on his investment in the emerging artist.

The top price in the 2003 sale was achieved by Charity , a 22ft bronze replica of the Spastics Society collecting doll from the 1960s. Hirst made three of the statues, one of which was sold to Kim Chang II, a businessman who displayed it at his Seoul department store. Another was damaged in the fire that swept through the Momart warehouses in east London earlier this year, destroying 17 of Hirst's works. The artist received a seven figure cheque from his insurers for the disaster.

Major works are commanding major prices. This week his medicine cabinet The Fragile Truth , sold for £1.2m when the auctioneer's commission was added. A second, The Sleep of Reason , sold for slightly more than £1m.

Hirst's industrial-level of production is down to the closely managed studio system he has built. He employs a staff of 30 mainly at his company Science Ltd which he runs from his rented office, an imposing Victorian house in Gower Street, central London. The cost of employing such a staff can be met with "two paintings a year", he says.

This summer he applied to expand his studios in Gloucestershire where most of his pieces are created. Stroud District Council is considering whether to approve the plans.

His business ambitions are far ranging. He is listed as a director of nine companies including Science Ltd, whose stated endeavour is recorded at Companies House as artistic and literary creation. Then there is Turtleneck Ltd, an art media company, Other Criteria Ltd, a general commercial company, Windows on the World Ltd, a computer company, Murderme Ltd and Overthesofa.com Ltd, which operate arts facilities, and the most recent - Under The Sofa.com Ltd and Under The Sofa Ltd which again specialise in artistic and literary creation. All are registered to a building in Charing Cross Road, central London, the home of Hirst's accountants. A ninth, Is Good Limited, is described merely as a general commercial enterprise.

Hirst is also a former director of 11 The Quay in the unfashionable North Devon town of Ilfracombe where he financed the restoration of the harbourside Victorian inn that houses it.

Hirst lives with his wife in Combe Martin, north Devon. He also has a house boat in Chelsea. He recently added four properties to his portfolio in Lambeth, south London, which are likely to provide studio space and recording facilities.

He is building a house by the coast in Mexico, described as resembling Cinderella's castle, which he plans to rent out as a holiday destination.

Hirst's next major exhibition will be in the United States with an exhibition of his paintings at the New York Gallery in March 2005.

Turner Prize winner charts his insecurities in pottery

By Arifa Akbar
Friday, 15 October 2004

Grayson Perry's first exhibition since winning the Turner Prize picks up where he left off when he collected the accolade dressed as his female alter ego, Claire.

Grayson Perry's first exhibition since winning the Turner Prize picks up where he left off when he collected the accolade dressed as his female alter ego, Claire.

Making an acceptance speech in a satin dress and patent red shoes last year, he wryly commented: "It's about time a transvestite won the Turner Prize."

That quote is emblazoned inside a speech bubble on one of Perry's signature ceramic pots, and features among his new work at the Victoria Miro Gallery in London, which opened yesterday and runs until 13 November. In another artistic reference to the night, a glazed pot, entitled A Network of Cracks, recreates the seating plan of the awards ceremony.

Perry's exploration of modern-day masculinity is a dominant theme in the exhibition, which consists of 14 ornate pots, a textile work and large-scale maps on paper. "It's an interesting time to be a man. I think the traditional role of the 'utility man' has been pushed out and we have not found a good way to replace him. Everything is so up in the air for men at the moment and we are fishing around for role models. I seek to capture some of that in my work," he said.

An ornate work,Precious Boys, depicting the sartorial elegance of a group of transvestites, represents the "psychological lack" experienced by boys which leads them to "dress up" later in life.

He said: "It's looking at the reasons men dress up, and whether they know it or not, it is about not being able to access the feelings of being 'precious' as boys. Boys do not often get that experience of 'being precious' just for being children. Transvestism is partly a manifestation of that psychological lack."

Another pottery work,Black Dog, refers to Winston Churchill's famous aphorism for depression, and captures silhouetted images which represent the artist's insecurities, including an image of a terrified boy wearing a Victorian smock. "The silhouettes represent the inner voices that tell you that you are rubbish. We all carry them with us," he said.

Perry, 44, said he chose pottery as a medium because it was humble and "not macho". Sir Nicholas Serota is featured as the Pope and the art collector Charles Saatchi is emperor, with London's art galleries transformed into cathedrals on a medieval, Mappa Mundi-style pot, Balloon, which makes a metaphor of contemporary art as the 21st century's religion.

A large etching,Map of an Englishman, depicts, Perry said, the "landscape of my beliefs" in the style of a 16th-century Dutch map - the corners are labelled Anorexia Nervosa, Sex, Peace, Love and Tender.

Saatchi says goodbye to Hymn . . . . . and hello to her

From The Times

October 2, 2004

By Jack Malvern, Arts Reporter THE unmade bed has been laid to rest, the shark has swum, and Hymn isn’t singing anymore. Charles Saatchi, the millionaire collector whose manipulation of the art market in the 1990s made the reputations and fortunes of the Young British Artists has dumped his most famous installations in favour of paintings.

Mr Saatchi has announced that he will clear his gallery of Tracey Emin’s My Bed and Damien Hirst’s shark in formaldehyde for a new exhibition of highly-regarded painters. Hirst’s 20ft bronze reproduction of an anatomical model, Hymn, will also be dismantled.

Works that were initially shocking when they were unveiled for Sensation, Saatchi’s 1997 show at the Royal Academy, will be sent on tour next year and then will be mothballed until 2007, when they will return to the Saatchi Gallery on the South Bank.

The Art Newspaper reported that Young British Artists, who are now approaching middle age, would be replaced by internationally renowned artists including Martin Kippenberger, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Luc Tuymans, Jorg Immendorff and Hermann Nitsch. Luc Tuymans, one of Belgium’s most celebrated contemporary painters, is currently on show at Tate Modern, and Martin Kippenberger is will be exhibited shortly at the Reina Sofia in Madrid.

The five painters will replace the headline-grabbing British artists of the 1990s including Jake and Dinos Chapman, Sarah Lucas, Marc Quinn and Gavin Turk. Hirst’s pickled sheep, Away from the Flock, and Chris Ofili’s elephant dung painting, The Holy Virgin Mary, will also be cleared out.

Marc Quinn’s Self, made from nine pints of the artist’s blood, will be kept in cold storage outside of the gallery.

Mr Saatchi said that it was time for contemporary painters to be recognised. “For the last ten years only five of the 40 Turner Prize artists have been pure painters,” he said. “We think it is time for a painting survey looking at established international artists and later in the year, new young painters.”

The move represents a significant shift for the collector who usually invests in relatively unknown artists by buying their work en masse. Sensation was seen as a success, but a recent exhibition, New Blood, was mauled by art critics. Mr Saatchi will hold a second exhibition of paintings, by younger artists including Daniel Richter and Cecily Brown, later in 2005. They will be succeeded by another exhibition of paintings by “emerging” artists, whose names have not yet been announced.

The works of Sensation will be touring the country but no venues have been arranged.

The move comes after reports of cooling relations between Mr Saatchi and the YBAs. In 2003, Damien Hirst described his patron an “arrogant” and a “childish” businessman who “only recognises art with his wallet”. Hirst declined to be involved in the Saatchi Gallery when it opened the same year.

Mr Saatchi’s newfound love of painting was not greeted with universal acclaim, however. Charles Thomson, who founded a movement called Stuckism to oppose Mr Saatchi’s patronage of installation art, said that the collector was copying his idea.

“It is amazing that he dares to do it,” he said.

A large chunk of Mr Saatchi’s Britart will not be available for touring. Several high profile items, including Tracey Emin’s tent and the Chapman Brothers’ Hell, were destroyed in a the fire in the Momart art warehouse May.