The Man Behind Brooklyn’s ‘Sensation’ To Exhibit Again

LONDON – Charles Saatchi, Britain’s wealthiest and most controversial modern art collector, is to return to the Royal Academy of Art to display his newest pot-pourri of cutting-edge art.Nine years ago, when he introduced Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin to an unsuspecting nation in his Sensation exhibition at the academy (and later at the Brooklyn Museum), he very nearly brought the institution to its knees. Notably, a portrait of the (notorious British child) murderer Myra Hindley painted with the imprints of a child’s hand led to demonstrations, broken windows, demands for sackings, the removal of the picture after eggs and a can of paint were thrown over it, and several resignations by Royal Academicians.This time, Mr. Saatchi is intending to show not the shock troops of British art – he has sold most of his Hirst’s and Emin’s at huge profits – but the young Turks of America whom he has been feverishly buying up over the last two years.The multi-millionaire collector has been invited to stage a month-long exhibition, to be called USA Today, showing 80 new American paintings, photographs, sculptures and installations by 30 artists from his personal collection.The collector declined to discuss the project yesterday and Norman Rosenthal, the academy’s exhibitions secretary, was evasive. Asked whether the new exhibition would be as controversial as Sensation, he said: “Who knows? Nobody can predict. When we had the first press conference for Sensation six months in advance, we showed the pickled sheep, the sliced cow and the Myra Hindley portrait but nobody took a blind bit of notice until the exhibition opened.”Thrill-seekers probably won’t be disappointed. Among the works Mr. Saatchi will show are paintings by Wangechi Mutu with titles such as Adult Female Sexual Organs and installations by Josephine Meckseper, who specializes in passing judgment on capitalism by creating show windows featuring yuppie footwear and women’s knickers.Mr. Rosenthal denied that Mr. Saatchi was attempting to recreate Sensation. “He’s moved on. We’ve moved on,” he said.Nonetheless, Mr. Saatchi appears to have found new versions of Mr. Hirst and Ms. Emin in America. In a variation on Mr. Hirst’s pickled animals, the exhibition will show a reindeer (made from acrylic) trapped in a frozen river by Erick Swenson. Another of Mr. Saatchi’s new proteges appears to have filled Ms. Emin’s notorious empty bed. The artist Christoph Schmidberger has painted a bed containing a partially clad woman cuddling a dog.Mr. Rosenthal disclosed that there were some worries at the academy about getting into bed with Mr. Saatchi again. He said: “There is always a bit of anxiety. Charles has done a lot for the art world in London – even those who resent him can’t deny that. The world is better because of him.”The new show, to open on October 4, should be a money-spinner for the Academy and a godsend to Mr. Saatchi. He was recently evicted from his gallery in London’s former County Hall after a series of disputes with his landlord and a new dedicated gallery in Chelsea will not be ready until next year.

The Man Behind Brooklyn’s ‘Sensation’ To Exhibit Again

The Man Behind Brooklyn’s ‘Sensation’ To Exhibit Again

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