Many art publications would like to interview Charles Saatchi, but the so-called reclusive collector demurs. Usually. So it was interesting that The Daily Beast, Tina Brown’s website, got him to answer email questions from “leading journalists and critics as well as members of the public.” The DB called him “brutally frank.”
But as one commenter later put it,
These answers may be “brutally frank” but they’re not brutally spontaneous. No wonder he refuses to be interviewed. He likes to research the answers to questions so he can come up with clever retorts like these.
And another:
I always enjoy Charles Saatchi’s answers, but I do wish he would expand on the more serious ones sometimes. Charles, could you try? Some of us are really interested to hear your genuine thoughts…
So what did he say? Not that much about art, though he did answer this question: “Do you think artists are more intelligent than other people?”
I have always been hesitant about visiting artists’ studios, and discovering that work I have admired has been made by someone nitwitted. This can be disconcerting if you believe an artist paints with his brains, not with his hands
Saatchi sidestepped the question of whether he has an obsession with collecting, but hinted at a yes answer. For the answer to “Is there art on other planets?” you can go here. It involves Lewitt, Andre and Judd.
Was this “get” worth it for the DB? Since there’s no space limit on the web, I suppose yes, but if this were a print publication, I wouldn’t have let him get away with the answers he gave. Where’s the spike?
For a better idea of Saatchi’s thinking, check out his website.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Daily Beast