We are Bananas

About Charles Saatchi

Charles Saatchi has been one of the moving forces of the modern age he is the most important art collector of our time and he has vigorously shaped the contemporary art scene while contradictorily remaining a reclusive even elusive figure who famously refuses to be interviewed. He was selected by the BBC as one of 60 'New Elizabethans' who have most influenced the past 60 years. Charles Saatchi founded the global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi in 1970 which grew to become the largest agency in the world. At the same time Saatchi began collecting art and later opened his first gallery a 30000 square foot ex-paint factory in Boundary Road London. His exhibitions have always focused on contemporary artists and Saatchi's Sensation exhibition of Young British Artists in 1997 at the Royal Academy London and at the Brooklyn Museum of Art New York sparked an explosion of controversy.The 70000 square foot Saatchi Gallery in the Duke of York's HQ Kings Road is one of the largest showcases of contemporary art in the world. It has hosted ten of the fifteen most visited exhibitions in London in the Art Newspaper annual museum visitor surveys and is amongst the five most popular museums in the world on Facebook Twitter Instagram and Google Plus.