Saatchi Wants Us!
Chances are you've heard about Saatchi's intriguing new democratic art venture, "Your Gallery." But in a startling new development, in the past week both This Broad and That Broad have received "personal" invitations to participate! We both received the following letter in our email inboxes (one of us received the letter 2 days earlier than the other; it has been a matter of some contention over here at Casa Broad whether the timing reflects on the relative quality of our work):
Whilst reading this email, our emotions zigzagged between, "Saatchi Gallery Wants To Show Our Work!" to "This Is A Piece Of S*** Spam!" and landed in a tangled pile about half an inch from the latter. How did they get our email addresses? Are they personally inviting every artist on planet Earth to participate? Do they really want every artist on planet Earth to participate? Does Saatchi employ thousands of underpaid sweetie pies to search the web endlessly for "high standards of work" like That Broad's and mine? Or do they employ hundreds of unmanned web drones to search artist databases for email addresses?
So, what the heck, I replied to Saatchina. She seemed so nice, and after all she did say she was impressed with my work:
Who else here has been invited???
Dear [Broad]:
My name is [Saatchina], I am contacting you from the Saatchi Gallery
here in London. Whilst searching the web I came upon your site and was
impressed by the high standard of work. I would like to tell you about
a new development here at the Saatchi Gallery.
We have created a new resource entitled Your Gallery; this allows
artists to post their work and information on The Saatchi Gallery
site. You can post up to eight images, biographical information,
information about you and your art, as well as your own contact
details and website. This is not a transaction site and there is no
fee, we have created this to assist artists in raising their profile.
Curators, collectors as well as thousands of visitors that we get
everyday have the opportunity to view your work. You have your own
page which you can update as much as you wish. If you are interested
please visit: http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/ or e-mail
[saatchina]@saatchigallery.com for more information.
Regards,
[Saatchina]
Saatchi Gallery
Whilst reading this email, our emotions zigzagged between, "Saatchi Gallery Wants To Show Our Work!" to "This Is A Piece Of S*** Spam!" and landed in a tangled pile about half an inch from the latter. How did they get our email addresses? Are they personally inviting every artist on planet Earth to participate? Do they really want every artist on planet Earth to participate? Does Saatchi employ thousands of underpaid sweetie pies to search the web endlessly for "high standards of work" like That Broad's and mine? Or do they employ hundreds of unmanned web drones to search artist databases for email addresses?
So, what the heck, I replied to Saatchina. She seemed so nice, and after all she did say she was impressed with my work:
We'll let you know if we hear back.
Dear [Saatchina],
Thank you very much for bringing the Saatchi site to my attention and inviting me to participate. I will definitely check it out.
Would you mind telling me how you came upon my email address, as it is not posted on my website?
Best regards,
[Broad]
Who else here has been invited???
posted by Broad*Sheet | 10:24 PM
14 Comments:
have you checked out the CHAT LIVE on the saatchi site??
had I been drinking a carbonated beverage while reading this post (a most unlikely occurrence, as I'm not a fan of soda) it would have come bubbling out my nose. Haha!! I know, not a nice visual. In any case, we Broads had a mini Broad-vs-Broad moment at a meeting shortly after virtual-Saatchi-world was launched. Making a random perusal, I found most of the work to be frightful. This Broad disagreed. It seems some better work has been added of late.
It seems a chatroom would be the perfect thing to round out the spectacle.
They wrote me back! Immediately! And the response from the apparently real human Saatchina made me feel mean for posting this.
However, she said she it would not be possible for them to tell me how they got my email address at this point since they did so much internet research. (She did not specify if it was done by humans or drones.)
So, nudge my emotions 1/2 inch toward "They want me! They Really Want Me!"
I'm gonna do it, too. Why the heck not?
it has been graciously brought to my attention that my previous comment should have read "...had I been drinking a carbonate beverage WHILST reading this post..."
I received two invitations from Saatchi -- exactly alike. That must mean that they REALLY want me, huh? I assumed they got my e-mail address from the Absolute Arts website, where I maintain a portfolio, or perhaps the D'Art website, fine-arts.com.
I, too, wondered why they would be inviting so many artists to post work on their website. What's in it for them? But I went ahead and accepted their invitation anyway, because after all, it is free, and there doesn't appear to be anything to lose.
yes,I also received said email. but have you seen the work on the site? yechhhhhhhhhhh.
I just recieved the same inquiry from said saatchina! Wondering if you Broads followed up, or heard anymore about whether this is legit?
Tracy
yes me too -- they asked me too.
i don't like free lunch, i like meals that really exist.
or am i being a wet blanket?
I feel just terrible that all of these comments were accidentally held up in the "pending approval" mode - that was indeed a mistake! so now I can say that I have tempered my initial response. Really, there's no harm in participating. On the plus side, it does seem to be international in scope (until it is completely overrun with us New Yawkahs!) so some people might be able to see your work who otherwise might not.
So, did you load up a profile?...You never know...
Hopefully this is of interest, but I worked at the gallery as IT Manager and worked with Charles Saatchi and launched Your Gallery back in May.
Think the opportunity for artists to exhibit their work - instantly - on such a resource (saatchigallery.com) provides a great opportunity for them in their aim of becoming just a touch noticed. I am definitely assured that there will be some big stars which come out of YG as many people (including Charles Saatchi himself (I know as a fact) view the site on a regular basis and with much interest.)
I have a site which I hope is of interest: www.onemanwebdesign.com
Cheers, Darren
I got an email today(10/26/07) from Saatchi Gallery saying the same thing. I'm guessing they got my email from my Flickr account. It's available to anyone, so it isn't hard to get. I'm wondering if they really took a look at my gallery or not. Anyway, it's free, and another avenue for artists
yourgallery.com is a joke. Saatchi has millions to spend on making a better site. Instead he made that dribble which half the time does not function correctly. I discovered www.myartspace.com last year and I find it to be a more fruitful site for networking. Plus their editor has interviewed Sylvia Sleigh and Michael Craig-Martin so you know these guys must have connections.
The whole concept of Saatchi's online venture for artists is not exactly honest. I mean, how many pieces has he actually bought from members there? Remember that Saatchi was a ad/market guru before becoming an art collector. He still still makes millions from that same line of work. He knows that if he places his name on a site that artists, thousands of artist, will visit his site daily hoping that he will view their work. That site probably makes a good chunk of ad revenue and you know just as well as I do that if it were any other site it would not be as popular. Yet people continue to beg for votes which brings even more people to that crummy site. Yet they are in the Pulse Art Fair? Lot of money exchanging hands! Maybe it is true what some of the critics say, Saatchi might just end up destroying the artworld just like he has destroyed a few careers messing up the markets for certain artists he lost favor with.
Everyone thinks that Saatchi will make them as famous as Damien Hirst. So they put their art on Saatchi's site with that hope. But what people don't realize is that Damien Hirst actually bought a lot of his work back from Saatchi because he knows that Saatchi can play the market without any consideration for the living artists in his collection. If he wants to sell your $50,000 painting for $5,000 he will, which can really mess up the market for your work when someone that influential does that.
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