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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