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Sunday Times

2 April 2006

Saatchi scoops up new British art talent at budget prices

by Richard Brooks

and Olivia Cole

CHARLES SAATCHI, the art collector who discovered and then disowned Britart, has snapped up the works of a new breed of young artist.

He has scoured obscure galleries, small exhibitions and final degree shows, and paid modest rates of £1,000 to £5,000 for the works of 20 young Britons.

Saatchi’s purchases have the power to move markets and any artist who becomes his protégé can expect to make a fortune. Many of the exhibits will go on display in spring 2007 when his latest gallery opens in Chelsea, west London.

His past favourites include Damien Hirst, who recently put his wealth at £100m. He sold a pickled shark to Saatchi for £50,000 before buying it back and selling it on to an American collector in 2004 for £6.25m.

The value of Tracey Emin’s My Bed — which featured soiled sheets and empty bottles of booze — is thought to have risen to more than £1m six years after Saatchi paid £150,000 for it.

Saatchi, who is married to Nigella Lawson, the author and celebrity cook, bought the work of Annie Kevans, a 33-year-old British artist, at her final degree show at London’s St Martin’s School of Art.

Annie Kevans is a relatively unknown and struggling artist who lives in a council flat, works part time as a secretary and puts in long hours at her studio in London's East End. But her fortunes could be about to change with the opening this week of the first solo show of her paintings at a small gallery in Shoreditch.

Kevans, like Tracey Emin before her, is one of the young artists whose careers have benefited from the patronage of Charles Saatchi, arguably Britain's most important art collector.

Although his gallery at County Hall closed amid acrimony last December and his new exhibition space in London will not open for another year, the progress of Saatchi-endorsed artists such as Kevans, Conrad Shawcross and Toby Ziegler (see box) suggests that his influence on the contemporary art world remains as strong as ever.

Despite the lack of anywhere to display his unrivalled private collection of modern art and suggestions that he has lost his touch for spotting the next generation of art superstars, Mr Saatchi is still exhibiting work online and, more importantly, is still personally trawling small galleries and exhibitions, as well as the degree shows of the art colleges, and buying obsessively.

Karen Wright, the editor of Modern Painters magazine said: "He's looking for new material for his gallery. Mr Saatchi wants to demonstrate that he is still around. He leads with his eyes and collecting is a personal passion."

Kevans, she said, was only one of many artists bought recently by Mr Saatchi. "Philip Ziegler is very talented and Shawcross is an almost certain nominee for the Turner Prize in the future.'