So much for BritArt: Saatchi turns to Germans

Sunday, 3 July, 2005

Saatchi show deserts British art

Art collector Charles Saatchi, known for championing British artists, will open a new exhibition this week consisting of works by foreign talent.
The Triumph of Painting: Part Two, at Saatchi's County Hall gallery, in London, will feature works by one Polish and five German painters.

Saatchi last omitted British artists from an exhibition in the 1987 New York Now show in his north London gallery.

Saatchi is well-known for his support of British artists like Damien Hirst.

He owns a vast collection of work, with many pieces by British stars including Hirst, Tracey Emin and the Chapman Brothers, and is also credited with helping to bring Hirst to the attention of the public and the media.

Hirst's now famous work The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living - 14-foot tiger shark preserved in formaldehyde- was commissioned by Saatchi in 1991 for £50,000.

The work propelled Hirst to fame after it was first shown in 1992.

Natural disasters

The Triumph of Nature: Part Two will cover subjects as diverse as natural disasters, accidents and the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe.

One room will be dedicated to German painter Franz Ackerman, who deals with topics such as urban generation and offers "an apocalyptic view of an ever-shrinking world" in his canvases.

In another, Polish painter Wilhelm Sasnal's work uses images that emerged during and after the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. The works of German artist Dirk Skreber's deal with accidents and natural disasters like car crashes and floods.

Another German painter, Albert Oehlen, proclaims there is no viable role for painting today and is said to "subvert art's lofty idealism and focus on exposing art's failures" in his work.

The show is the second instalment in Saatchi's 20th anniversary exhibition. The first opened in January to feature established painters Martin Kippenberger, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Luc Tuymans, Jorg Immendorff and Hermann Nitsch.

The Triumph of Painting: Part Two is open at The Saatchi Gallery from 5 July to 30 October.