On a hot day on the King’s Road, what better place to cool down and culture up than The Saatchi Gallery? I slipped through the shady entrance through those spectacular columns on a week day and was one of the few visitors there. I can’t understand why it isn’t more popular – fantastic location, agreeable café, stunning building and amazing art – and all for free.
Even the building itself is something to behold – calm white interiors, soft limed floors, interesting views through the stair case windows, good access for buggies and wheelchairs, spacious and unfussy galleries.
On the ground floor, gallery one is full of large photographs of an amazing assortment of older people portraits – most of whom are dressed in interesting and unconventional ways. They are startlingly vibrant and a celebration of older people having fun and expressing their individuality. My favourite was of a younger man, bare chested, holding a rabbit in each hand.
In gallery two there are large landscape photos – each in a bright colour. I admired the purple coast line view the most. Gallery three had some incredible Gispert views through truck cabs. The trio of Nishino New York dioramas (mosaics of tiny photos) held my attention for a while too. And the Epstein BP Carson Refinery was the perfect image for America’s love affair with oil.
In Gallery 6 there was a series of matter of fact Engstrom nudes – memorable for their relaxed poses but nonetheless intriguing. Gallery 7 had a print rippling down the wall and across the considerable expanse of floor. I didn’t have enough time to study the Lipps and Abeles works properly nor those in gallery 8 although the Utsu Octopus portrait was remarkable.
There were some montages of nudes here – and I didn’t feel comfortable spending too much time looking at these but did enjoy Levine’s Lightness of Being – the Queen in all her finery with her eyes closed in contemplation.
Gallery 10 had some pixelated images by Collishaw – most disturbing of which was a huge picture of a cat with his ears pegged. Les Amants by Goudal used material in a forest to cleverly emulate a waterfall.
But the top floor held the greatest treasures for me. There was a small space containing two incredible images which I thought at first were by the same artist. The first was Nimbus II by Smilde – a cloud in an empty hall - and the second was a woman plunging into a grand room full of water. This turned out to be a still from a total hydration body wash advert by Johnson & Johnson. I laughed at myself for liking an advert above all the other art in the gallery.
But on this floor are the large canvasses of boldly bright flowers by Ana Tzarev (the exhibition runs until 16 June) and, in the centre of one gallery, a huge metallic red exotic flower. It is extraordinary.
It’s well worth investing in the £1 for the guide – informative but not too long, although I was surprised that it started with descriptions of gallery 6 (Out of Focus: Photography).
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/
