No one has influenced the changing face of contemporary art quite like Charles Saatchi. Now, in this first-ever chronicle of the Saatchi Gallery since its opening in 1985, the full effect of his pioneering curatorial eye is felt. The weighty leather- and cloth-bound volume reads like a Who's Who of the art world over the last 25 years.
Publisher Edward Booth-Clibborn and designers Value and Service have kept the look of the book as clean as possible to ensure the 900 or so images do the talking. To this end, the text on each page is kept to a minimum.
Divided into 28 sections such as 'Young British Artists', 'The Revolution Continues: New Art from China' and 'Abstract America: New Painting and Sculpture', each charts an exhibition period in the gallery's history from 1985 to 2010. Featuring every single artwork that has ever been in Saatchi's gargantuan art collection would have been virtually impossible, so the book offers a digestible (yet still impressive) selection of 732.
Between pages are cloth-bound inserts of commissioned essays by art critics Richard Cork and Brian Sewell, Sir Norman Rosenthal (former secretary of exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Art) and an amusing bit of prose by actor Steve Martin.
‘The man who made us look at contemporary art’ insert on Charles Saatchi by Norman Rosenthal
’Red Painting’ by Cy Twombly, 1961
’Olson’ by Richard Serra, 1985-86
Spread introducing the chapter entitled ‘Art of our time’, featuring the work of Julian Schnabel, Eva Hesse and Malcolm Morley (pictured)
‘Joe’ by Chuck Close, 1969
‘Welcome Shaking Hands’ by Bruce Nauman, 1985
An installation view of the Robert Mangold and Bruce Nauman exhibition that took place at the Saatchi Gallery from April to October 1989. From left: ’Untitled’ by Bruce Nauman, 1978; ’4 Colour Frame Painting No.3’ by Robert Mangold, 1983; ’Untitled’ by Bruce Nauman, 1978
‘A Thousand Years’ by Damien Hirst 1990, from the chapter on the Young British Artists, which features works seen at the gallery from March 1992 to August 2001
From left: ‘Vicious’ by Gary Hume, 1994; ‘Memento Mori: the YBA Generation’ insert by art critic Richard Cork
Installation view of ’Tourists II’ by Duane Hanson, 1988
‘Grosse Geister’ (Big Ghosts) by Thomas Schütte, 1996
‘Engadin’ by Andreas Gursky, 1995
From left: ‘Odessa, Ukrain, August 4, 1993’ and ‘Dubrovnik, Croatia, July 13, 1996’ by Rineke Dijkstra
‘Cold War’ by Aleksandra Mir, 2005
Installation view of ‘Kurtoplac Kurve’ by Kristin Baker, 2004
Installation view of ‘Ghost’ by Kader Attia, 2007
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Should your home have a patron goddess? This dramatic Minneapolis apartment doesInspired by the Celtic deity Brigid, interior designer Victoria Sass infused this Twin Cities aerie with flame-licked themes
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Welcome to Polymath Park, where you can spend the night in a Frank Lloyd Wright masterpieceA pair of determined Wright devotees have turned four endangered modernist houses into an overnight design retreat
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Jamel Shabazz’s photographs are a love letter to Prospect ParkIn a new book, ‘Prospect Park: Photographs of a Brooklyn Oasis, 1980 to 2025’, Jamel Shabazz discovers a warmer side of human nature
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A life’s work: Hans Ulrich Obrist on art, meaning and being drivenAs the curator, critic and artistic director of Serpentine Galleries publishes his memoir, ‘Life in Progress’, he tells us what gets him out of bed in the morning
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Ed Ruscha and Ruthie Rogers team up on zingy new cookbookEd Ruscha and friend Ruthie Rogers, chef and River Café co-founder, have teamed up on a cookbook with a difference
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Thomas Prior’s photography captures the uncanny fragility of American lifeA new book unites two decades of the photographer’s piercing, uneasy work
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Cult classic ‘Teenagers in Their Bedrooms’ captures the angst of being a teenAre 1990s teens so different? Three decades after its original release, this photography book by Adrienne Salinger has been published again, by DAP
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Make the Booker Prize shortlist your new reading listThis year’s Booker Prize shortlist captures the emotional complexity of our times, with stories of fractured families, shifting identities and the search for meaning in unfamiliar places
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How to be butch: Clark Henley’s sharp, satirical and playful manual is back in printThe 1982 classic, ‘The Butch Manual: The Current Drag and How to Do It’, full of tongue-in-cheek advice, is available once again
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We are all fetishists, says Anastasiia Fedorova in her new book, which takes a deep dive into kinkIn ‘Second Skin’, writer and curator Fedorova takes a tour through the materials, objects and power dynamics we have fetishised
