BritArt: The next generation

Charles Saatchi created a sensation in the art world by putting the work of Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and the Chapman Brothers on display. Now he's looking to find the next generation of talent with 'Stuart', a non-profit online gallery for students with something to show. In its first week, 600 have signed up - and the website has attracted 20 million hits. Watch this space

By Louise Jury
Thursday, 30 November 2006

Not all of them will end up in his collection, but the latest initiative from Charles Saatchi offers young art students a greater chance of success. The man who introduced the world to artists Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Rachel Whiteread and Sarah Lucas, and who is credited with changing the face of British art with his explosive Sensation exhibition in 1997, has now launched his latest venture, Stuart.

The Stuart (as in "student art") gallery, gives artists the opportunity to show their work in a virtual exhibition space from where they can be picked up by collectors. Such a facility has clearly been needed: since introducing a dedicated platform for art students, the Saatchi website has seen its hit-rate double to three million a day and, in its first week alone, Stuart attracted 600 submissions from around the world.

A non-profit-making site, where artists can sell their work without being charged commission, Stuart could be considered a logical extension of Charles Saatchi's long-term interest in student work. A subsection of Saatchi's website Your Gallery, which already hosts a free global exhibition space for 18,000 artists, Stuart has been described as a unique opportunity for graduates hoping to get their work recognised on a wider stage. In addition, the discussion board on the site enables artists to share ideas, inspirations and advice with each other.

"When I was a student we would never have dreamt of having something like this," says the artist Paula Rego. "It's brilliant for students to show their work and see what is going on with other students worldwide."

Grayson Perry, the winner of the 2003 Turner Prize, agrees. "It's innovative ideas like this which will bring on new waves and changes in art. This type of innovation will always produce new, exciting things."

And although the man famous for showcasing the YBAs (Young British Artists) has not yet bought anything from the site, he does insist that he views the work of every new student who signs up. "There are a number of really very interesting artists on Stuart that I have already passed on to dealers that I work closely with, both in the UK and in the States," says Saatchi.

So far, around a third of the students are from the UK, one third from America and one third from the rest of the world, from Turkey to Slovakia. Yet the Saatchi Gallery contacted only art galleries in London to kickstart the process. The surge of interest appears to stem from word of mouth.

Nevertheless, not everyone is convinced by the project. "Sometimes you come back from an art school visit, saying to anyone who will listen: you just wouldn't believe how terrible some of them are," says The Independent's art critic Tom Lubbock. "Now the world can see. The serious question is whether these sites will provide artists - good or bad - with a significant alternative, direct-sale marketplace, which bypasses the gallery system with its enormous percentages. That seems doubtful.

"Most rich art-collectors aren't as bold as Saatchi is himself - they'd be reluctant to buy on a whim out of the blue. But another possibility is the development of a very broad 'general public' art market. That would presumably mean artists devoting themselves to relatively cheap, home-sized and maybe reproducible artworks, rather than big, expensive, unique museum pieces. For ambitious artists that would be a big and perhaps intolerable reversal of priorities."

In the meantime, the site continues to grow apace. While he may not be directly responsible for creating the next generation of Young British Artists, Saatchi is certainly the driving force behind them. Is the next big thing already online? Time will tell.

www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/stuart

Sophie Rees, 21, Fine Art Painting, University of Brighton

"Stuart is benefiting students on a global scale. It enables us to communicate our work, ideas and philosophies internationally. As students, we do not usually have the facilities and capital to exhibit our work regularly; the Saatchi website has given us the opportunity to do so."

Federico Gallo, 31, MA Communication Art & Design, Royal College of Art

"Stuart is a fun, fast way to exchange contact details, thoughts, info and samples - almost like having many talented minds from all over the world in one room. It is an easy way (the website is nicely designed and simple to use) to see and be seen, to learn about new, creative people, techniques and opportunities."

Tori Murphy, 26, Fine Art, Kingston University

"It's the first time as art students that we can communicate with and see the work of our contemporaries from all over the world. I have already been in contact with people from Canada, Dublin and all over the States."

Ally Mobbs, 22, Fine Art: Print-Making and Digital Media, University of the Arts, London (UAL)

"Stuart is a good alternative to other networking sites, as it offers online space to art students. After graduation I could quickly find possible collaborators on it or people with experience and knowledge that I do not have to ask for help."

Vicky Newman, 22, Fine Art, Falmouth College of Arts

"It is quite easy to feel 'safe' in a bubble of tutors and fellow students, and quite out of touch with the real world. I have found Stuart excellent in putting me in contact with new voices of other students around the world, giving fresh interpretations of my work and hopefully preparing me for life after a BA."

Jayne Archard, 22, Fine Art, Kingston University

"It appeals to me as an online exhibition space - I can share my work, ideas and interests with other artists beyond the studio environment. There's something really exciting about being involved with this new and fast-growing online art community. It gives me an invaluable chance to network with new people in creative fields."

Eleanor Lindsay Fynn, 25, MA Photography and Urban Culture, Goldsmiths College

"I use Stuart as a means to find other artists working around similar themes to me. At the moment I am curating a show on 'Alienation' using both known and unknown artists, and have been building connections and getting ideas through Stuart."

Mark Davey, 21, BA school, The Slade School of Fine Art

"I put my work on Stuart because it's a great new way to get your work seen by all types of people, and I like how it is people's own content that is beginning to be at the forefront of what the internet is."

Julie Bennett, 35, Fine Art, Kensington and Chelsea College

"It's a unique opportunity to have your work viewed by thousands of people worldwide who are serious about art. Being able to view works of your contemporaries around the world is a valuable source as a student so you can start to see the trends that are happening today. You can also contact everyone on the site and ask how they did something or, indeed, commission them to do something similar for you, giving you a feeling of supporting art at the very beginning."

Ian Larson, 25, BA school, The Slade School of Fine Art

"I believe that having a place to exhibit your art to as many people as possible for free is great and in that way the Stuart site has started something for a lot of artists, galleries and collectors to think about and view."

Stefanie Kirlew, 23, BA Fine Art/History of Art, Goldsmiths College

"Stuart is a fantastic networking tool for all art students. It provides an excellent opportunity to meet, share ideas, and chat with others who foster similar interests, as well as providing a space to display your work that is viewed by millions of people all over the globe each day."

Stuart Hartley, 36, MA Fine Art, The Slade School of Fine Art

"What the site gives is the opportunity to have a web presence for free (important student factor), and in turn this gives the opportunity for my work to be seen by both prospective galleries and collectors alike. It also allows me to see work by other up-and-coming artists from institutions worldwide and to contact them about their work to discuss shared concerns."

Biteback: Richard Brooks

From The Sunday Times

November 26, 2006

• Ouch. I winced at the torture scene in Casino Royale, in which Bond’s genitals are beaten. The film has been given a 12A certificate, so parents can bring their kiddies along. To get past the censor, the British Board of Film Classification advised some edits of shots concentrating on Bond’s pained face and close-ups of the torture rope.

When I saw it at my local cinema, there were not only some under-12s present, but even a baby. It cried every so often, presumably out of boredom at the 2hr 20min length. The BBFC, by the way, has received complaints about the torture scene.

But the most horrendous scene of all was a shot of a grinning Richard Branson at Miami airport, plus a couple of his Virgin aircraft. His appetite for self-promotion remains undiminished.

Mind you, even the Branson plug was not as sickening as the number of online-gambling ads in the trailers before Casino Royale began. Such a wonderful incentive for youngsters to gamble. Tessa Jowell, our minister for encouraging casinos, would be so happy.

Bet she wishes she was back on good old Five Live.

Fair enough, but there’s a throwaway line at the end of the press release, spotted by The Art Newspaper, which says that running in tandem with the show are 20 photos from Gap’s private collection. They might as well set up a Gap store inside the gallery to flog some clothes, too.

• I had an intriguing chat with the Royal Academician Tom Phillips at a dinner given by the Flowers gallery. Phillips, a keen ping-pong player, told me how Charles Saatchi held table-tennis soirées with him, Salman Rushdie, Alan Yentob and Howard Jacobson at his Eaton Square home. Saatchi even hired a coach to improve his game, but still lost most of his matches.

Saatchi is likely to want to feature Chinese artists in the first show at his new London gallery. I trust he’s better at ping-pong diplomacy.

• Lauren Booth, Cherie Blair’s half-sister, is currently on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity — Get Me out of Here. When she does get out, she’ll have a book to sell. It’s not an exposé of any rumble in the jungle, but a memoir of her time as a 17-year-old living with her dad, the actor Tony Booth. Funnily enough, I’m told it’s not a “life was just misery” book.

Picture me in Miami

From The Times

November 25, 2006

Long famed for sun, sea and OAPs, Miami is gaining a name as a vibrant centre for contemporary art. Morgan Falconer explores a city reinventing itself

Coming from Britain, I always thought that the private homes of private collectors were, well, private. Charles Saatchi may throw open a portion of his collection for public perusal, but you can bet that he’ll never let you into his home. I had heard much of the generous openness of Miami’s collectors, but I never realised that I’d be able to land in Miami, make a couple of calls and find myself at the door of one of the most important collectors in the United States. I’m not greeted by a maid, but by Rosa de la Cruz herself, who leads me through a house laden with sufficient material for about five strong solo exhibitions. This is as good a primer as any for Art Basel Miami Beach, one of the world’s most glamorous art fairs.

De la Cruz’s house is devoted to art — paintings, sculptures and installations arranged by artists flown in especially for the purpose. She showed me some of the most recent paintings by the newest names, such as Kelley Walker, and works purchased from shows in London and elsewhere in Europe. (You can tour her house online at tinyurl.com/yc6n3r.) We went into the dining room to see an installation by Christian Holstad which involved a woolly, tentacled gas mask construction (left). Upstairs, we looked at Assume Vivid Astro Focus, a fantastical scene blending nightclub, skating rink and video installation. But de la Cruz’s thirst is not quenched, so she will certainly be visiting the fifth Art Basel Miami Beach fair. It’s the powerful offspring of the important Art Basel, and 200 of the world’s most significant galleries will be coming to the Convention Centre for it.

Like many of her neighbours, de la Cruz doesn’t just collect fine art, she collects design as well (two sets of Frank Gehry furniture made of steamed and twisted wood sit near her french windows). And to cater for that hunger the second Design Miami fair is being held this week. It’s an event that gives space to 18 of the world’s leading modern design galleries. It’s a serious business — the Pompidou Centre in Paris has brought some of its design collection to exhibit in a satellite venue. But serious or not, shoppers will also relax: I understand that one does business in the morning, lounges on the beach in the afternoon, and come nightfall one gallivants with abandon around the faded Art Deco splendour of the nearby poolside bars and restaurants that line the nearby Collins Avenue.

Miami Basel has come to be seen as a catalyst and symbol for widespread changes in the area as a whole. In the 1980s the city was dilapidated, poor and famous only for druglords, pensioners and vulgarity. Although it remains one of the poorest cities in the US, parts of it are starting to show a fabulous revival. One sign of this is the Setai, the new towering beach-front development recently created by a chain of luxury hotels in Asia and the Far East.

One of the most significant figures in Miami is Craig Robins, the 42-year-old property developer and art collector who is largely responsible for the revival of the city’s design district. He says that the marriage of Art Basel and Miami Beach makes a lot of sense. “What you’ve got here is the best and most serious art fairs in the world occurring in one of the places that is also the most fun. It’s the combination of a deep cultural substance with a really vibrant city.”

What undoubtedly lured the Basel organisers to this new location, however, is the wealth and accessibility of the private collections in the city. The Wynwood district, for instance, may be a rundown mélange of light industry, housing and cheap shops, but it is home to world-class art: one warehouse encloses the Rubell Collection, a massive trove amassed by Don Rubell (brother of the Studio 54 co-founder Steve) and his wife Mera; another houses one part of the collection of Marty Margulies, a real-estate potentate with a gargantuan appetite for sculpture and photography. Other prominent collectors sit on the boards of the city’s public museums, Miami Art Central and the Museum of Modern Art North Miami.

It wasn’t until a significant generation of Cuban exiles arrived in the 1990s, bringing figures such as José Bedia, that Miami’s art scene began to come alive. The prominence of the collectors and the arrival of new galleries is persuading artists to stay.

One could put all this new activity down to Art Basel, but the renaissance probably predates it. As Robins says: “I started my business in South Beach, a place for film, music and fashion. Maybe it didn’t have substance, but it was perhaps the only place in the world where everything was about style. Maybe it was less sophisticated, but it has always advocated creativity and individuality.”

Art Basel Miami Beach (www.artbaselmiamibeach.com), Dec 7-10; Design Miami (www.designmiami.com), Dec 8-10.

British Airways Holidays offer a three-night break to the five-star Setai Hotel (www.setai.com) in Miami from £1,145 per person departing Dec 1-16. The price includes return scheduled flights from Heathrow and accommodation. The above is subject to availability and is based on two adults sharing. For reservations call British Airways Holidays on 0870 2421276 or visit www.ba.com/holidays

MIAMI . . .
The Golden Girls
Miami Vice Sunshine: lots of it
Very big hair
Carlos and Rosa de La Cruz
Miami Beach
Alligators in the Everglades

v LONDON
Catherine Tate’s filthy gran
The Bill Light drizzle: lots of it
Lanky Hoxton mullets
Charles Saatchi South Bank
That whale in the Thames last year

Damien Hirst: the Murderme collection

From The Times

November 25, 2006

Rachel Campbell-Johnston at the Serpentine Gallery

Damien Hirst never does anything by halves — unless he is slicing dead animals, of course. So you can be sure that his private collection of art, part of which is on public show for the first time with the gruesome title of Murderme, is going to be pretty full on.

It hits you in the face like the Andy Warhol car smash that hangs about like some doorman to greet you: a red-misted vision of mass-produced death. Everything in Kensington Gardens is certainly not lovely. But it definitely has guts.

Hirst’s work always makes headlines. A couple of weeks ago controversy raged over whether one of his paintings was a piece of plagiarism. His shark in formaldehyde, that iconic cruiser of the conceptual scene, is being replaced (it was beginning to look more like some battered stuffed-toy) in an operation involving rubberised jumpsuits and tanks full of pickling fluid.

But now the Serpentine focuses not on Hirst’s own work but that of the artists whom he admires. These are pieces that he plans to install in his stately home: Toddington Manor in Gloucestershire. There visitors will be able to admire his collection in its entirety. Is this a case of a poacher turned gamekeeper? Has the artist turned patron? And are we witnessing the birth of an heir to Charles Saatchi? Hirst insists that he has always been a collector. “You just amass stuff while you are alive. It’s like stuff washed up on a beach somewhere, and that somewhere is you.”

If Hirst-land is a place, it’s a hotbed of revolutionary fervour. It’s a banana republic from which this Goldsmiths-trained generalissimo plotted the coup that took over the British art world. His landmark Freeze exhibition established the Brit-art junta in 1988.

This is an artist, it seems, who has always had the sharp eye and brave judgment of the judicious collector. As the curator of Freeze, he dictated who was in and who was out. He followed this with further curated shows: Modern Medicine and Gambler, both in 1990, and, in 1994, Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away. Hirst helps to shape an aesthetic through his choices. And suddenly Mr Saatchi seems more like some proselytising apostle. Recognising a saviour who could salvage a dreary art scene, he backed Hirst’s Brit-art movement and lent it financial credibility by putting up the cash.

Now Hirst, whose fortune is estimated at £35 million to £100 million, can put his money where his mouth is. He can afford to fork out $3.5 million (£1.8 million) for a small Warhol screenprint. And so he does. No doubt it will prove a sound investment. But it also typifies the commercially driven ethos of the “movement” he made so fashionable.

The Brit-pack is the bedrock of a collection that began on the “swapsies” principle. Here are the sorts of pieces that made Sarah Lucas, Angus Fairhurst, Tracey Emin or Gavin Turk famous: a photo of a chicken strapped on to a girl’s knickers, a naked man cradled by a monkey suit, a filthy sleeping bag in which a tramp sleeps.

Hirst has moved forwards, backwards and outwards from there. Breaking his rule of “never buy anything that costs more than your own work”, he invested in a small painting by his artistic godparent, Francis Bacon. It cost £12 million. He also bought pieces by Richard Prince and Jeff Koons, although he doesn’t have a Bruce Nauman, which he would love, or a Prince Charles. “Maybe we could trade,” he suggests.

This is not one of those dull, fill-in-the-gaps-style collections. It is brashly idiosyncratic. It likes one-liners and dramatic narratives. It revels in sex and death. Works are given guts in its context. It has an energy and passion that keeps it fresh.

On show from today (020-7298 1528)

Art of collecting

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was an avid collector of artists, such as Cezanne and Matisse, and of objects that had influenced his work. He was also a prolific collector of African art

The Impressionists including Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) and Claude Monet (1840-1926), were heavily influenced by the bold colours and lines of Japanese prints

Sir John Soane, the British arcahitect, (1753-1837) amassed a wide collection before his death in 1837. It ranged from classical busts and columns to furniture, and included work by Turner and Hogarth

Peter Paul Rubens the Flemish painter (1577-1640) was a prolific collector of other people’s paintings, particularly the Venetian painter Titian

Charles Saatchi Sells 7 Doigs to Sotheby’s

By CAROL VOGEL

Published: November 24, 2006

CHARLES SAATCHI SELLS 7 Doigs to Sotheby’s

Charles Saatchi, the British advertising magnate, has gained an international reputation not simply for the London gallery that showcases his vast collection of contemporary art. He is just as well known for buying works by emerging young artists before they’re hot and then selling them.

Recently he parted with seven paintings by the Scottish-born artist Peter Doig that Sotheby’s bought together for $11 million, according to art dealers and auction house experts who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing future dealings with Mr. Saatchi. He had bought them either at auction or from collectors. (All seven are still on the Saatchi Gallery Web site, www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk.)

Murmurings that Mr. Saatchi was planning to sell the paintings have been circulating around New York galleries and auction houses for six months, and this is not the first such sale he has made recently. This year he sold Christie’s five paintings by Marlene Dumas for $6 million, which the auction house has either placed at auction or sold privately, and other works he owns have been cropping up at art fairs and auctions this season.

Perhaps the most famous of Mr. Saatchi’s purges took place in 2003, when he sold most of his works by Damien Hirst back to the artist and to the London dealer Jay Jopling. Mr. Hirst paid Mr. Saatchi about $15 million for 12 seminal pieces.

This week, through a spokeswoman, Mr. Saatchi declined to confirm or deny the sale of the Doigs. Sotheby’s, which is trying to sell them privately for $2 million each, also refused to comment.

Romantic yet realistic, Mr. Doig’s paintings tend to be photo-based images of scenes like a canoe floating in a glassy lake or a snow-covered mountain range and lush woodlands. Each is nostalgic yet modern. Among them are two paintings of canoes drawn from his childhood in Canada, one of Le Corbusier’s Modernist apartment block in France and another of a house in Canada.

Mr. Doig, 47, who moved from London to Trinidad in 2002, is not a prolific artist; he works at a painstakingly slow pace, producing fewer than 10 paintings a year, said Kadee Robbins, director of the Michael Werner Gallery in London, one of the galleries representing him. “These paintings appeal to a wide number of collectors,” Ms. Robbins said, “because people can relate to the subject matter.”

Ms. Robbins, who said she was aware of the sale to Sotheby’s, called the deal “a serious commitment, but highly justified.”

A SWEEP OF ACQUISITIONS

At the Modern

The Museum of Modern Art’s committee on painting and sculpture approved several acquisitions this week. The most important is Brice Marden’s “Propitious Garden of Plane Image, Third Version” (2000-6), a six-panel painting, 24 feet long, on view as part of the artist’s retrospective running through Jan. 15. It is composed of layered ribbons of colors that explore a spectrum of six colors — red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet — in both its backgrounds and its patterns.

“We recently acquired a small group of three works ranging in date from 1964 to 1989,” said John Elderfield, the Modern’s chief curator of painting and sculpture. “So it made real sense to see if we could add this work. It looks back at his earlier paintings and is enormously ambitious.” Donald B. Marron, vice chairman of the museum’s board, and his wife, Catherine, have promised the work to the museum.

The other acquisitions were also gifts. Leon Black, another trustee, and Ronald S. Lauder, a trustee who is a former chairman of the Modern’s board and a co-founder of the Neue Galerie, split the purchase price of a sculpture by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, “Standing Girl, Caryatid” (1909-10), which the Modern and the Neue Galerie will own jointly. It is the first Kirchner sculpture to enter the Modern’s collection.

The Emily and Jerry Spiegel Family Foundation donated Duchamp’s “In Advance of a Broken Arm,” a so-called unassisted readymade, meaning a common object that the artist left unchanged; this one is a common snow shovel. Mrs. Spiegel is a member of the museum’s painting and sculpture committee.

Two other sculptures were given to the museum by Agnes Gund, a Modern president emerita, and her husband, Daniel Shapiro: “Embryo II” (1967), a three-foot-tall wax relief with organic forms by Lynda Benglis, and “Wall Pocket,” a 13-foot-tall sculpture fashioned from cedar beams by Ursula von Rydingsvard. It is the first work by Ms. von Rydingsvard to enter the Modern’s collection, Mr. Elderfield said.

Another gift came from Steven A. Cohen, a hedge fund manager, who donated an untitled 1981 painting by Martin Kippenberger from his series “Dear Painter, Paint for Me.”

HOPPER SHOW EXTENDED

The Whitney Museum of American Art is extending its Edward Hopper exhibition through Dec. 31. The show, originally part of the museum’s “Full House: Views of the Whitney’s Collection at 75,” which closed Sept. 3, includes important loans like the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Nighthawks” (1942) and the Museum of Modern Art’s “New York Movie” (1939). Each painting is shown alongside its preparatory drawings from the Whitney’s holdings.

“We’re taking advantage of a rare opportunity,” said Donna de Salvo, the Whitney’s chief curator.

NEW HAMMER CURATORS

The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles is making some high-profile curatorial changes. Russell Ferguson, its chief curator and deputy director for exhibitions, is becoming the chairman of the art department at the University of California, Los Angeles, replacing James Welling, who had been the acting chairman since July. Ann Philbin, director of the Hammer Museum, promoted Garry Garrels, a senior curator at the Hammer, to chief curator and deputy director for exhibitions. Mr. Ferguson will remain an adjunct curator.

Ms. Philbin also hired Ali Subotnick as an adjunct curator. Ms. Subotnick had run the Wrong Gallery in Chelsea with the artist Maurizio Cattelan and the curator Massimiliano Gioni.