Dec. 1, 2010 -
PRLog -- Though formerly a prominent artist in the Saatchi Gallery’s online art competition called Showdown, Ray Laing has become cynical about the site's new style of management.
“The problem with Saatchi Online now is that you wonder if it remains “Saatchi” Online” in anything other than name. Charles Saatchi’s decision to bequeath his gallery to the British nation seems to have precipitated rapid outsourcing. To artists, the original Saatchi Online had an ethos of credibility:
Obviously, it was synonymous with the Saatchi Gallery. An institution famed for discovering art notaries Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, and breaking the American avant-garde like Jeff Koons in Europe. Now that Saatchi Online is being administered by a company in Los Angeles the site has been significantly distanced from the actual gallery not only in terms of geography but thesis. One interesting fact is that the CEO of the new Saatchi Online has entered his photographs into the competition called “Showdown“
hosted by Saatchi Online. This is an evident conflict of interest. In fact when any artist or art lover signs up to Saatchi Online they are greeted by a picture of the CEO of the new Saatchi Online and invited to become “friends” with him and/or vote for him in the Saatchi Showdown competition. The newcomer will not get the same invitation from any other artist. [That seems dodgy to me]. I wonder if the original Saatchi Online, with its vast established following, hasn’t been misappropriated to promote the agenda of specific artists at the expense of other artists bolstering the numbers on the site. That's my suspicion anyway. It is hardly reassuring that the winners of the Showdown will be exhibited at the gallery in London. Other than a message stating that “Showdown is changing” on the original Showdown site, artists were not informed that the Saatchi Online site was being outsourced to an American company. This I think will ultimately damage the legacy of Charles Saatchi. Saatchi Online started out as an innovative art platform. What it has become now is just another amateur artist site with a base in the US. I am glad that I have set up with a new popular art site because if you don't feel comfortable with one site you can always be optimistic of creating new and better things with the next stage of your trajectory as an artist. I now see exactly where I intend to go next.”
Article first published: 12th December 2010.
