My Name is Charles Saatchi and I am an Artoholic: Everything You Need to Know About Art, Ads, Life, God and Other Mysteries and Weren't Afraid to Ask: Amazon.co.uk: Charles Saatchi: Books

Product Description

Art collector, gallery owner and founder of a global advertising agency, Charles Saatchi is famously publicity-shy, a reluctant interviewee who never attends his own gallery openings, let alone anyone else's. This book brings together his unflinching responses to questions he has been set over the last few years by leading journalists and critics as well as members of the public. Whether the questions are related to art, advertising, money or his personal life, Saatchi answers them all with disarming and sometimes brutal frankness, creating an enlightening and entertaining first-hand account of the most influential art collector of our time.

From the Author

My Name is Charles Saatchi: Q&A with the author

What is the most honest thing you can say about yourself?

My name is Charles Saatchi and I am an artoholic.

How do you choose what to buy? Is it about what you like, or will you buy things you don’t like as an investment?

The more you like art, the more art you like. So I find it easy to buy lots of it, and seeing art as an

investment would take away all the fun.

You’ve been successful at discovering new artistic talent. But are there not always great artists who go undiscovered?

By and large talent is in such short supply, mediocrity can be taken for brilliance rather more than genius can go undiscovered.

Why do overseas museums have better collections of Britart than the Tate?

Because the Tate curators didn’t know what they were looking at during the early 1990s, when even the piddliest budget would have bought you many great works. But I’m no better. I regularly find myself waking up to art I passed by or simply ignored.

What’s the point of art?

To stop our eyeballs going into meltdown from all the rubbish TV and films we happily look at the rest of the time.

Who are your living heroes?

Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird. Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront. Cary Grant in North by Northwest. Burt Lancaster in Sweet Smell of Success. Gary Cooper in High Noon. They live forever, if you grew up in the local Rialto.

Do you believe in it all?

I am not clever enough to be a cynic, so belief is the only option available to me.

You famously created the slogan ‘Labour isn’t Working’. Were you a Tory? Are you a Tory?

I once also threw myself into the Health Department’s Anti-Smoking campaign, visited emphysema wards, studied pictures of cancerous lungs, and came up with the grisliest copy I could – puffing away happily as I wrote. How sweet of you to think that advertising copy is written from the heart.

Are the National Gallery and the Tate too conservative? If you had to choose would you

be happier to see Tate Modern or Tate Britain burned down?

I spend much of my life in the National Gallery and the Tate, so excuse me if I don’t take your question too seriously.

How much television do you watch and do you prefer Big Brother or Newsnight?

I watch hours of television. My favourites are University Challenge and Match of the Day and almost anything on the ironically named Living channel. Big Brother is out of the question, even for me.

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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

looks good, but disappointing read... 13 Oct 2009

By H. Ruffell

Format:Paperback

Looks great, but text is disappointing. Not really his fault - book based around a question and answer approach and the questions asked just didn't get him talking! Far to many dull questions about Nigella which don't belong here at all! I bought this book based on an interview with Saatchi in The Telegraph and expected lots of intelligent text - what I got was repetition, large fonts and rather to many 'yes' or 'no' answers to lengthy questions! Borrow, don't buy!

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

HHmmmm 12 Dec 2009

By Alfonso

I can't say it's a particularly scintillating read, Saatchi comes across as a cynical and elitist character with answers that cause little inspiration.
Some of his answers are quite contradictory and others, well, aren't answers.

Despite this, for such a cheap price you can't complain too much, it provides a little insight into the man, but if you were hoping to find
some kind of inspiration or memorable quote, you won't find it in here.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Thought provoking and enjoyable read... 23 Feb 2012

By richard

I bought the book entitled 'It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be' many years ago from Phaidon. I finally purchased this book and read it today.

The book contains many insights into a field (The Art World) which Saatchi is obviously an expert in and has much wisdom regarding the Art establishment in an easy to digest, no nonsense fashion.

Saatchi has a unique perspective of life and portrays this in the book without coming across as forceful. The book itself is an artwork, as utilizing an interview format, he actually manages to create an extremely entertaining autobiography which has hints of a biography as the questioners at times act as though they know the man, then he puts them (and us) straight.

Overall, this is an excellent read, highly advised and well worth the price.