CHARLES SAATCHI, the art collector who discovered and then disowned Britart, has snapped up the works of a new breed of young artist.
He has scoured obscure galleries, small exhibitions and final degree shows, and paid modest rates of £1,000 to £5,000 for the works of 20 young Britons.
Saatchi’s purchases have the power to move markets and any artist who becomes his protégé can expect to make a fortune. Many of the exhibits will go on display in spring 2007 when his latest gallery opens in Chelsea, west London.
His past favourites include Damien Hirst, who recently put his wealth at £100m. He sold a pickled shark to Saatchi for £50,000 before buying it back and selling it on to an American collector in 2004 for £6.25m.
The value of Tracey Emin’s My Bed — which featured soiled sheets and empty bottles of booze — is thought to have risen to more than £1m six years after Saatchi paid £150,000 for it.
Saatchi, who is married to Nigella Lawson, the author and celebrity cook, bought the work of Annie Kevans, a 33-year-old British artist, at her final degree show at London’s St Martin’s School of Art.
Her work, called Boys, consisted of black and white portraits of children who went on to become dictators. Kevans used childhood photos of Hitler, Pol Pot, Nicolae Ceausescu and Radovan Karadzic as the basis of her pictures.
“A deal was concluded and a car came to collect the works,” Kevans said.
Thanks to the Saatchi purchase, Kevans now has her first solo exhibition, Girls, opening this week at the Studio 1.1 gallery in east London. The paintings depict actresses and singers who were child stars — such as Brooke Shields, Shirley Temple, Jodie Foster, Britney Spears and Charlotte Church.
The portraits are all somewhat suggestive: Spears is depicted in her bra, while Shields is shown at 12, when she became famous as a hooker in the film Pretty Baby.
There is no obvious pattern to Saatchi’s purchases from young artists. He recently bought Swarm, two miniaturist sculptures from Tessa Farmer, 27, for £3,500 and £4,000. The works, now united in one piece, are made up of insects. “Of course I was pleased,” Farmer said.
Toby Ziegler’s 12ft by 9ft landscape painting, Designated For Leisure, was bought 18 months ago by Saatchi for less than £10,000 from an exhibition at London’s Royal Academy. Since then Ziegler’s work has appreciated in value.
Conrad Shawcross, 28, son of William Shawcross, official biographer of the late Queen Mother, sold a sculpture to Saatchi two years ago, while Lynette Yiadom Boakye, who is of Nigerian origin, and Donald Urquhart, have sold him portraits of women.
An East End show of nocturnal scenes in charcoal by Reece Jones, who trained at the Royal Academy, was bought in its entirety. Other artists to catch Saatchi’s eye include Ged Quinn, Liz Neal, Lucy Skaer and Mario Rossi.
Saatchi, who has in recent years sold much of his Britart work, said in late 2004 that most of the movement’s controversial figures will be “nothing but footnotes” in art history.
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