Charles Saatchi wandering round in his own mind ( or creeping outside the Stuckist gallery ) looking for an original idea

(- for the benefit of visitors from the Saatchi gallery website).

On the eve of his gallery’s 20th anniversary and its complete reinstalment with paintings, Charles Saatchi answers questions on the record for the first time ever.

You have been described both as a ‘supercollector’ and as ‘the most successful art dealer of our times’. Looking back on the past 20 years, how would you characterise your activities?

Charles Saatchi: “Who cares what I’m described as? Art collectors are pretty insignificant in the scheme of things. What matters and survives is the art”.

Art Axis comment on the Saatchi Gallery Visitors’ Forum, 28.1.06
Topic – What is the future of internet art?

“Internet art can also be art posted on the internet, it obviously doesn’t have to be digital art. For example Michael St.Mark’s New London Dadaists have a pilot website with online Dada journal ( 691) and a virtual online gallery displaying over 160 radical works defining this brand new and exciting art movement.

http://www.londondada.blog.co.uk ( Now our archive/invest  site is at http://www.LondonDada.co.uk )

“Because London Dada’s parameters of subject matter are open and therefore challenging, there is no chance of the works fitting comfortably alongside Turner winners for example, nor of them ever being selected by Charles Saatchi.”

“The Web is lightly censored; the upside of which is the potential to provide a far more dynamic and realistic expression of new art, accessible by millions. Indeed cyberspace may very possibly be the future medium for the expression of art itself, freed from the heavy shackles of staid tradition and rigid, conventional galleries representing an elitist arts establishment.”

Art Axis

* Shortly thereafter, by the summer of the same year ( 2006 ), Charles Saatchi had his own online gallery Saatchi Online up and running.

“ If he had an idea of his own, he’d be dangerous ” – AA