The eagerly anticipated opening of the new Saatchi Gallery finally took place at the beginning of October 2008 in Chelsea, London. The gallery, with its generous exhibition space of 70,000 sq ft is already the third in which world-renowned collector Charles Saatchi has displayed his collections of contemporary art.In 1985, he opened his first gallery in the space that had previously housed a paint factory in St John’s Wood, North London. The core of the collection at that time was mainly comprised of a selection of the work of American artists; Donald Judd, Brice Marden, Richard Serra and Cindy Sherman among others. His exhibition of Cy Twombly for example, the artist’s first in Britain, is testament to the fact that Saatchi has repeatedly anticipated the times and the trends followed by institutions. In the early nineties, the collector turned his attention from American to British artists. It is undeniable that Saatchi stands at the beginning of the phenomenally successful career of Damien Hirst as well as the rest of the generation known as the Young British Artists (YBAs). Indeed it was with a retrospective exhibition of these artists’ work that he opened his new gallery in County Hall (the Greater London Council's former headquarters) on the South Bank of the Thames in 2003. The gallery was forced to move a mere two years later however, due to an unsuccessful legal battle with the owners of the space.
Saatchi’s new gallery in Duke of York's HQ on the King's Road opens with the exhibition “The Revolution Continues: New Art from China”. In thirte
en halls it presents twenty four Chinese artists; all of whose works are from among the collector’s private acquisitions. These naturally include the names of the latest stars of the Chinese art world, like Zhang Xiaogang and Fang Lijun, also currently exhibiting in the Rudolfinum Gallery in Prague. Much of the heat is on artistic pair Sun Yuan and Peng Yu. On the ground floor these artists present us with 13 incredibly lifelike figures of old men wheeling about on wheelchairs, all uncannily reminiscent of world dictators from recent history. The wheelchairs move around apparently aimlessly in various directions, resulting them to repeatedly collide before moving on in different directions.
en halls it presents twenty four Chinese artists; all of whose works are from among the collector’s private acquisitions. These naturally include the names of the latest stars of the Chinese art world, like Zhang Xiaogang and Fang Lijun, also currently exhibiting in the Rudolfinum Gallery in Prague. Much of the heat is on artistic pair Sun Yuan and Peng Yu. On the ground floor these artists present us with 13 incredibly lifelike figures of old men wheeling about on wheelchairs, all uncannily reminiscent of world dictators from recent history. The wheelchairs move around apparently aimlessly in various directions, resulting them to repeatedly collide before moving on in different directions.To summarise the nature of this exhibition (which in a few months, will be replaced by one of art from the Middle East) we can highlight the following: in the majority of cases we’re dealing with figurative artworks, ones that often carry a strong political or social message; the quality
fluctuates (the presence of a weaker work sometimes surprises one by sticking out amongst the masterpieces); the sculpture represented has more in terms of innovation and imaginative creation than the paintings, which in some cases betray an almost forced attempt to consciously define themselves against the established western corpus that has so clearly influenced them. The transfer of the gallery to a wealthy area, and the firm place the Saatchi label now holds on the ‘map’ of the gallery establishment has perhaps inevitably led to a lessening of its onetime status as a benchmark of controversy. To seek here for the Saatchi of the 90’s would indeed be a futile undertaking. 
