Detroit - The
Museum of New Art (MONA) presents Martin Pottinger, on view through
September 9. In the art world, Charles Saatchi’s name is already
written in stone. To some he is the greatest thing that ever happened
to contemporary art. His passion for art is unquestioned. To others,
however, he is a dealer in collector's stock, using his influence to
manipulate the market. He buys an artist's work in bulk and at low
prices, then watches. There are many takers for the Charles Saatchi
brand. Art prices can both rocket and plummet at his whim.
There once was a time - and it wasn't so long ago - that Mr Saatchi
used to spend his Saturday mornings trawling the edgier, grungier,
not-yet-gentrified areas of London for up-and-coming, smart young art
talent.
The British collector still goes shopping on Saturday mornings, but
these days he mostly stays closer to home in Chelsea. And his
discoveries now tend to be more modest when you consider his latest
stumble on an art find in the downstairs of his new Chelsea gallery at
Sloane Square.
Upon surveying recent renovation in the basement of his new gallery,
Mr Saatchi was startled by 56 year-old Pottinger’s boiler room walls
which were spattered with mud patching and of half-finished rollered
paint. "My God, this is what great art should be." said Saatchi.
"Something that gives real visual pleasure and makes you sit up and
think, not the pseudo-controversial rehashed claptrap over at the Tate
that so many believe is cutting-edge art."
Plenty of people have had the dream of finding a lost or hidden
masterpiece in their attic, but how does one respond to what they find
a common worker doing in their cellar? Mr Saatchi isn’t alone in his
convictions. Such "isolation and visual focus denotes importance: the
greater the masterpiece, the greater its separation from other objects
that might compete for attention." Victoria Newhouse writes in her
book, Art and the Power of Placement.
Pottinger's boiler room art has been likened to the recent discovery
of British cave paintings in Church Hole cave in Creswell Crags,
Derbyshire. It is that important to Mr Saatchi, who almost never
grants interviews or speaks publicly. He has described the fresh
drywall work in his gallery's basement as "infinitely more exciting
than almost anything seen upstairs in years".
Martin
Pottinger link (click
here) |
