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Chinese art show draws record crowd
Samantha Cairns15.12.08
A CHINESE art exhibition in Chelsea has attracted a record number of visitors for a contemporary art exhibition.
About 5,200 visitors each day have seen the free Revolution Continues exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, which means that by the time the show closes it will have attracted about 525,000 people. Only 300,000 visited Charles Saatchi's 1997 Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy.
The exhibition's success can be attributed to the recent popularity of Chinese contemporary art. Many of the world's most successful artists either work in or come from China.
Mr Saatchi now hopes to build on the success of the Revolution Continues by staging an exhibition of Middle Eastern art.
Although art from the region is often overlooked because of the tense political situation, the former advertising mogul, who was born in Baghdad, said: "The work is breathtaking - new Arabian artists are about to take centre stage in the art world."
The stars of the new show - called Unveiled - include the brothers Rokni and Ramin Haerizadeh, from Tehran, Khaled Hafez from Cairo and Wafa Hourani from Hebron in Palestine.
Reader views (3)
No one cares about Saatchi =. He might as well open a Zoo in that neighbourhood. I agree with the previous blogger. His shows on China and the international scene are terrible.. totally decontextualized and all for the market. The artists in those shows won't last long. The Tate Modern at least is public - exhibitions are agreed on the basis of the consent of the board. Saatchi turns art into furniture.
- Frederique Manzi, London, UK
Why doesn't anyone ever thank Mr. Saatchi for giving the city of London a great new (free admission) contemporary art museum displaying heretofore unknown and challenging artworks in a neighborhood previously without any contemporary art venues?
- Meg Maggio, Beijing, China
There is no substance to Satcchi's recent show and there will be no substance to Unveiled - they are all vanity shows. Basically no curatorial meaning - they collapse all the middle east together with no relation to specificity. Also many of these artists have no experience whatsoever especially certain artists who will be in unveiled. It is just basically very sad ..exoticism and creating conditions for these artists to continue to self orientalize. Horrible ... JD
- Jane Dyson, London, UK
