Dog chews and Mao: Saatchi's art revolution

By Arifa Akbar, arts correspondent

Tuesday, 7 October 2008

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Stephen White

Gallery 8. Installation view, The Revolution Continues : New Art from China, Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York's HQ, London, 2008

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When Charles Saatchi closed his last art gallery after a row with the landlord, he famously sold off his prestigious collection of works by the YBAs, leaving the world wondering what he would "discover" next.

Yesterday, Saatchi revealed a new collection of YCAs, or Young Chinese Artists, after unveiling the world's largest free-entry contemporary art gallery in private hands.

A giant faeces sculpture called Indigestion II, replicas of London buildings made from dog chews, and models of elderly men resembling leading statesmen playing "dodgems" in wheelchairs were some of the artworks occupying the 70,000 sq ft, four-storey gallery on London's King's Road for its inaugural exhibition, The Revolution Continues: New Art from China.

Speaking to The Independent about his initial hesitations about the collection, Saatchi said: "First I hated it. Then I liked it. Now that I've hung it, I'm mad about it." In 2005, the millionaire collector publicly ditched much of his YBA collection, after announcing that he would quit the former Country Hall building for a new home in the Duke of York headquarters building.

For two-and-a-half years, critics have wondered what he was buying to replace Damien Hirst's pickled sharks and works by Tracey Emin. Just as the YBAs did before them, the 24 Chinese artists on show have made bold and brash statements with their works, including sculptures of bodies with bound hands hanging upside down, a painting of the Queen Mother sitting in the royal carriage with Chairman Mao and two "spot the difference" paintings of Princess Diana's wedding kiss.

Rebecca Wilson, head of development at the new Saatchi Gallery, said "The gallery's guiding principle is to show what is being made now, the most interesting artists of today. It's about drawing people's attentions to someone who might be tomorrow's Damien Hirst." The gallery opens on Thursday. Its entire collection of 2,500 works is expected to be exhibited by next year.