New Saatchi show attracts glittering crowd but bad reviews

Model Sara Brajovic at the Saatchi Gallery opening
LAST UPDATED AT 12:33 ON Fri 30 Jan 2009

Charles Saatchi threw open the doors of his Chelsea gallery last night for the opening of his latest art extravaganza, Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East. Among those inspecting the works of the 21 featured artists were Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, Dan Macmillan, Jonathan Yeo and, perhaps diverting some eyes from the various sculptures, paintings and installations, the statuesque American model, Sara Brajovic (pictured).

Saatchi, who as reported here is to his host an art version of the X Factor for BBC2, was nowhere to seen (this is his usual practice for openings; some suspect he sits at home watching the guests via CCTV cameras). But he certainly provided the critics with something to get their teeth into.

The Guardian's art writer, Adrian Searle, turned to the work that has become emblematic of the exhibition, Kader Attia's 200 kneeling kitchen-foil figures. "Spooky?" asks Searle. "No - shiny, but dull and obvious. The material might remind us of women's unacknowledged domestic toil, and those shadowy voids within the cowls might signify woman as absence. But let's not delude ourselves. This is weak, boring stuff."

Searle concludes: "If the art audience knew as much about Middle Eastern art, or Indian art, as it does about current US or European art, there would be a lively debate about the lopsidedness, the choices and omissions in Unveiled, and how trivial much of it is. What a wasted opportunity." Ouch.

Martin Gayford, Bloomberg's chief art critic, also felt there was not much to commend, saying it was "full of what you might call Saatchi-type art: brash, figurative, sometimes shocking" and that it was "the kind of work he discovered in the London of the early 1990s".
 
This cool reaction echoes the reception of his first show at the gallery, The Revolution continues: New Art from China, back in October. It was variously condemned for not setting the agenda, and by Brian Sewell of the London Evening Standard, for possessing neither "wit nor wisdom".
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