To describe Saatchi as the Godfather of British art, it would almost seems portraying him in a slightly wise crack jest figure would be the way to go, so I won't describe him as that. Instead, I will imply that his opinion is highly sought after and that as an artist if one man in this country would be singing the praises of your work, you would crave it surely to be Charles Saatchi.
So when the exhibition Newspeak: British Art Now opened it doors to the public at the Saatchi Gallery on Kings Road, they came. Why? Mainly because Charles Saatchi has deemed it as being British Art Now. The show delivers art in the good the great and the miscellaneous. It is all over the shop as it was always going to be with various themes and disciplines, but it works and is exciting, shocking and questionable. There were times when I really believed the nail had been hit on the head, and the contrast between the likes of Ged Quinns and John Wynne restored faith that there is room for traditional disciplines in Modern art as is there room and hope for the untraditional. Contrast and contradiction keep the space alive and flowing and the likes of Little White Head, 'it happened in the corner' and Alastair MacKinven, 'Portraits of Thomas Jefferson as Karl Marx' were two of the delights.
