Brooklyn Hangs Tough - art exhibit censorship

Art in America, Jan, 2000 by Lee Rosenbaum

That said, many observers still feel that the link between sponsorship and self-interest, if not explicitly discussed, was understood and undesirable. Saatchi himself may have anticipated the negative inferences that might be drawn: he "did not wish to fund anything at all," according to Lehman. "He believed that the show stood on its own legs and didn't want any kind of appearance" that Brooklyn's desire to mount it was predicated on his willingness to pay for it. He did relieve Brooklyn of responsibility for insuring the works by keeping his own coverage. And when the museum's best efforts at fund-raising came up woefully short, he agreed to kick in $160,000 for transportation of the objects, with $60,000 to be refunded if the show proved a financial success. (At this writing, the museum has received $50,000 of Saatchi's pledge.) However, Saatchi flatly turned down the museum's request that he guarantee the entire cost of the show.

Jenny Blyth, curator of the Saatchi Gallery, London, which regularly mounts shows from the Saatchi collection, suggested that if museums refused financial support for controversial contemporary shows from "interested parties," they might find themselves "cancelling shows that fail to find sponsors." She stated that Saatchi, a famously active, astute player in the contemporary market, has no plans to sell the works in "Sensation." Nevertheless, he has no obligation to hold onto (or donate to museums) these or other works by the Young British Artists. In fact, a year ago he sold some 130 such works (reportedly 5 percent of his collection) at Christie's, London, for 1.6 million [pounds sterling] ($2.56 million), some of which he donated to support art education.

Of the 38 dealers contacted by Lehman to be patrons of the "Sensation" gala, several purchased blocks of tickets for the benefit dinner, including Larry Gagosian, who paid $10,000 for a table. "It was a no-brainer," explained Gagosian, who represents Damien Hirst and Jenny Saville, two artists in the show. Gagosian, who considers Saatchi "one of my best friends," told A.i.A. that he had also recently spent $10,000 to support a gala at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., and he had split with two other dealers the entire cost of a recent lavish Guggenheim Museum dinner in New York. "This seems like normal art-world business as I know it," commented the dealer. "It's just common sense. If I can afford to be helpful, it's a win-win situation: It helps the institution and it helps the artist. I don't think it contaminates anything. They're not doing the show based on the $10,000 I gave them." He added that he never contributes "direct exhibition support" to museums and that he does not believe that "Sensation" will have "any impact, negative or positive" on the market for the artists' works. Potential purchasers "already knew these artists," he asserted.

Lehman said that other dealers who supported the gala included Luhring Augustine (representing Rachel Whiteread), Lehmann Maupin (representing Tracey Emin) and Sperone Westwater (no artists in "Sensation"). "Not one dealer did anything but buy tickets" to the gala, according to Lehman. "I had asked if some dealers would help [in other ways] and they didn't." In all, the gala raised some $170,000 in gross revenue.