Charles Saatchi is a British businessman and the co-founder with his brother Maurice of
the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. The brothers led that business – the world's
largest advertising agency in the 1980s – until they were forced out in 1995. In the same
year, the Saatchi brothers formed a new agency called M&C Saatchi. Charles is also known
as an art collector and the owner of the Saatchi Gallery, and in particular for his sponsorship
of the Young British Artists, including Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.
Early life Charles Saatchi is the second of four sons
born to Nathan Saatchi and Daisy Ezer, a wealthy Iraqi Jewish family in Baghdad, Iraq. The
name "Saatchi" ساعتچی means 'watchmaker' in Turkish while saat means watch in both
Persian and Turkish. Charles's brothers are David, Maurice Nathan and Philip. Nathan was
a textile merchant and in 1947, he anticipated a flight that tens of thousands of Iraqi Jews
would soon make to avoid persecution and relocated his family to Finchley, London. Nathan purchased
two textile mills in north London and after a time re-built a thriving business. Eventually
the family would settle into an eight-bedroom house in Hampstead Lane, Highgate.
Saatchi attended Christ's College, a grammar school in north London. During this time,
he developed an obsession with US pop culture, including the music of Elvis Presley, Little
Richard and Chuck Berry. He also manifested an enthusiasm for collections, from cigarette
cards and jukeboxes to Superman comics and nudist magazines. He has described as "life-changing"
the experience of viewing a Jackson Pollock painting at the Museum of Modern Art in New
York. He then progressed to study at the London College of Communication.
Advertising career In his first advertising role as a copywriter
in the London office of Benton & Bowles, where he met Doris Lockhart, Saatchi paired up with
art director Ross Cramer. They worked as a team at Collett Dickenson Pearce and John
Collins & Partners before leaving in 1967 to open a creative consultancy CramerSaatchi.
Unusually for a creative consultancy, they took on employees – John Hegarty was their
first, followed by Jeremy Sinclair, who as of 2011 still retains a senior role at M&C
Saatchi. In addition to offering consulting with ad agencies they also took on some clients
directly. In 1970, he started the advertising agency
Saatchi & Saatchi with his brother Maurice, which by 1986 had grown to be the largest
agency in the world, with over 600 offices. Successful campaigns in the UK included Silk
Cut cigarettes and the promotion of the Conservative Party led by Margaret Thatcher through the
slogan "Labour Isn't Working". Eventually, he and his brother Maurice left the agency,
and together founded the rival M&C Saatchi agency, taking many of their clients with
them, including the British Airways advertising account.
Art
In 1969, at age 26, Saatchi purchased his first work of art by Sol LeWitt, a New York
minimalist. Saatchi initially patronised the Lisson Gallery in Marylebone, London, which
specialised in minimalist works; he purchased an entire show by Robert Mangold. On a visit
to Paris in 1973 with his first wife, Doris Lockhart, he purchased a realist work by the
British artist David Hepher, a detailed depiction of suburban houses. In the early 1980s, Doris
and Saatchi purchased a 30,000 sq ft cement-floored and steel-girded warehouse at 98A Boundary
Road in the residential London suburb of St. John's Wood. The Saatchi Gallery was opened
to the public in February 1985, to exhibit the art Saatchi had collected.
At one point the Saatchi collection contained 11 works by Donald Judd, 21 by Sol LeWitt,
23 by Anselm Kiefer, 17 Andy Warhols and 27 by Julian Schnabel.
His taste has mutated from "School of London", through American abstraction and minimalism,
to the Young British Artists, whose work he first saw at the Freeze exhibition. In 1991,
he turned his back on the New York art world with two major acquisitions by new British
artists. He was instrumental in 1992 in launching the career of Damien Hirst and in bringing
Marc Quinn to the forefront of the art world. His renown as a patron peaked in 1997, when
part of his collection was shown at the Royal Academy as the exhibition Sensation, which
travelled to Berlin and New York, causing headlines and some offence and consolidating
the position of the YBAs.
In 2009, he published the book My Name Is Charles Saatchi And I Am An Artoholic. Subtitled
"Everything You Need To Know About Art, Ads, Life, God And Other Mysteries And Weren't
Afraid To Ask", it presents Saatchi's answers to a number of questions submitted by members
of the public and art fraternity. Saatchi's PA's were asked to buy large numbers of Saatchi's
books to get them higher up bestseller charts. From November to December 2009, he had a television
programme on the BBC called School of Saatchi in which he gave young aspiring artists an
opportunity to showcase their work. He made no appearance in the programme, only communicating
through an assistant. Artists including John Keane and Paul Harvey have painted pictures
of Saatchi. In July 2010, Charles Saatchi donated the
Saatchi Gallery and over 200 works of art to the British public.
Philanthropy He and his brother founded the Saatchi Shul,
an independent Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Maida Vale, London, England, in 1998.
Personal life According to the Times Online, Saatchi is
"reclusive", even hiding from clients when they visited his agency's offices, and, as
of February 2009, has only ever granted two newspaper interviews, though he has appeared
on Nigella Lawson's television shows as a background guest. He does not attend his own
exhibition openings; when asked why by The Sunday Telegraph, he replied: "I don't go
to other people's openings, so I extend the same courtesy to my own." Both Hartenstein
and Goldman refer to Saatchi's reclusiveness/shyness as a feint or "his shtick', affected to allow
him to accept invitations and social requests as he chooses.
In The Sunday Times Rich List 2009 ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK, he was
grouped with his brother Maurice and placed 438th with an estimated joint fortune of £120
million. Marriages
Saatchi first met Doris Lockhart Dibley in 1965 when she was a copy group head above
him at Benton & Bowles. She was a native of Memphis, Tennessee and Kevin Goldman describes
her as "a sophisticated woman who spoke several languages, knew a great deal about art and
wine and who had graduated from Smith College and the Sorbonne". She became known during
their marriage as an art and design journalist, with particular knowledge of American art
and minimalism. They lived together for six years before getting married in 1973 and divorcing
in 1990. Saatchi's second wife was Kay Hartenstein
an American Condé Nast advertising executive from Little Rock, Arkansas. Together they
have a daughter, Phoebe. Saatchi married his third wife, British journalist,
author and cook Nigella Lawson, having drawn disapproval when she moved in with him nine
months after her previous husband's death. In January 2011, Saatchi and Lawson moved
from their former home in Belgravia to a new home in Chelsea, London. This was a double
fronted seven-bedroom villa converted from its former use as a warehouse and conveniently
situated only 200 metres from Saatchi's contemporary art gallery in King's Road, London. They lived
with her two children Cosima and Bruno, as well as Phoebe.
In June 2013, while dining at Scott's, a London seafood restaurant, Saatchi was photographed
with his hand around Lawson's throat. The day after the pictures were published, Saatchi
said they were misleading and depicted only a "playful tiff". By contrast Lawson stated
she saw a “sweet baby” and said, “I’m so looking forward to having grandchildren”
. Saatchi then grabbed her throat and said, “I’m the only person you should be concerned
with – I’m the only person who should be giving you pleasure” Once Saatchi moved
his other hand near her throat and even went for her nose. Nigella Lawson looked seriously
distressed and left the restaurant crying. The Guardian commented,
Saatchi was subsequently interviewed by police about the incident and accepted a caution
for assault. Later still while giving evidence Lawson claimed casual cruelty and controlling
behaviour by Saatchi which made her unhappy and drove her to drugs. She cited as examples
that Saatchi prevented her entertaining at home and disciplined her for going to a birthday
party of a woman friend. Lawson and her children left the family home, and in early July, it
was announced that the couple were to divorce. Lawson cited ongoing unreasonable behaviour
in her divorce petition. On 31 July 2013, seven weeks after the incident, Saatchi and
Lawson were granted a decree nisi, ending their ten-year marriage. They reached a private
financial settlement. R v Grillo and Grillo, a trial for fraud involving the former couple's
two Italian-born personal assistants, sisters Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo, began on
27 November 2013. Charles Saatchi reportedly told his ex-wife that he would 'end' her.
Subsequent to the criminal trial of the Grillos, it was reported that both Saatchi and Lawson
could be liable for employer tax contributions on the money used for the personal benefit
of the two sisters. The money, and other benefits, could be considered taxable benefits in kind,
that could potentially make them subject to a 13.8% employer's National Insurance contribution.
Charles Saatchi's name has been linked to that of Trinny Woodall. Pictures were published
of one allegedly tearful public argument. References
Further reading Hatton, Rita and Walker, John A. Supercollector:
A Critique of Charles Saatchi, Institute of Artology, 2005. ISBN 0-9545702-2-7
Kent, Sarah. Shark Infested Waters: The Saatchi Collection of British Art in the 90s, Philip
Wilson Publishers Ltd, 2003. ISBN 0-85667-584-9 Goldman, Kevin Conflicting Accounts – The
Creation & Crash of the Saatchi & Saatchi Empire, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1997.
ISBN 0-684-83553-3 External links
The Saatchi Gallery Works by or about Charles Saatchi in libraries
Charles Saatchi collected news and commentary at The New York Times
Guardian Interview, 6 September 2006 Saatchi answers reader's questions on Times
Online, 4 April 2010 Saatchi Says He’ll Give Britain His Gallery
and Over $37 Million in Art, The New York Times, 1 July 2010