Charles Saatchi: "Supercollector" -
The revolution continues: New Art from China
Excerpt from Rita Hatton & John A. Walker’s 2010, 4th edition book.
Charles Saatchi inaugurated his third gallery with a show of new Chinese art (October 2008 - January 2009). (In this instance he was behind a public gallery— Tate Liverpool— which had mounted a Chinese show in spring 2007.) Around 100 works by 24 artists purchased since 2005 from auctions and dealers (Saatchi never visited China) were displayed. Western collectors and speculators invested in Chinese art because they expected the Chinese billionaires of the future to buy the work back at higher prices later on.
Attendance was high— 405,612— due to the curiosity value of a new London art space and little known foreign art. Most of the “new” Chinese art imitated Western trends— such as shock and weirdness— and Western art styles— such as pop art and photorealism— apart from artists like Wang Guangyi (b. 1957) who parodied the propaganda poster art of Mao’s communist regime. Among the most fashionable painters were Yue Minjun (b. 1962)— famous for repeated images of manic, grinning, pink faces— and Zhang Xiaogang (b. 1958)— noted for melancholy faces with huge eyes. (Charles Saatchi paid over a million dollars each for two of the latter’s paintings.) Perhaps the most popular installation was Old Person’s Home (2007) by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, which consisted of 13, life-size, highly realistic, waxwork geriatrics sitting in wheelchairs that were motorised so that they could move around the gallery like slow-motion dodgems at a funfair.
While several critics expressed doubts as to the artistic merit of the Chinese art, they mostly agreed the show was entertaining. Tim Adams detected the influence of BritArt on the Chinese and argued that “BritArt, essentially Saatchi’s invention, has become one of our few exportable successes”. [1] If Adams is right, then what Charles Saatchi exported he has now imported.
Charles Saatchi’s attachment to his Chinese acquisitions did not last long because in May and June 2009 he auctioned off works by Yua Minjun (one of the latter’s pictures bought for £249,000 realised £421,000) and sold a painting by Zeng Fanzhi for $446,500. But sale reports revealed that prices for Chinese art had tumbled. However, in November 2009 Saatchi sold another Zeng painting— Untitled (hospital series) (1994)— that he had paid £860,000 for in 2007 for £1.5 million via Christie’s in Hong Kong.
Reference:
[1] Tim Adams. “Credit crunchable”. New Statesman, 23 October 2008.
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