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Here's a compressed Saatchi Online article version of a film I recently finished work on, about beauty in art. The film was an hour long and was shown on BBC2 on 14 November 2009. (In the UK it can be accessed on BBC I-player.) For me there are certain laws by which beauty in art - this almost meaningless notion - can actually be defined. People are curious about it. They have their stock questions. Is it in the eye of the beholder? Does it change over time?
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A few months ago I received a request to take part in a debate at the Oxford Union. The motion was: "This house believes that conceptual art just isn't art." Adrian Searle and Miroslaw Balka were on the panel too, and on the other side were the Stuckist leader Charles Thomson and Mark Leckey (below), the artist who won the Turner Prize last year for a conceptual art installation. Towards the end of his speech about being anti-conceptual art Leckey pointed at me, said "Gaahhh!" and cried out: "I ... read more...

The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg and the Saatchi Gallery, London are jointly presenting
'Newspeak: British Art Now', featuring some of the most exciting artists to have emerged in the UK in the last few years who are largely unknown in the wider art world. The first section of this exhibition is at The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg until 17 January 2010, while an expanded version in two parts will open at the Saatchi Gallery in London starting summer 2010 through to January 2... read more...

This week the scandal about the sheer badness of Damien Hirst's new paintings broke in the mainstream UK press, so I don't need to go on about it any more than I already have. One thing Hirst's failure to be any good as a painter points to, though, which hasn't been addressed directly yet, is art school. What can you be taught? What should an art school be? What should it get across? And that's the subject this week. I wont be putting anyone down or sucking up to them but just recalling my... read more...

An uncharacteristically free-flowing quotation from Jeff Koons is reproduced in the catalogue of "Pop Life." It is about how artists are not particularly glamorous by nature, and to make themselves so they have to access systems other than art. It was actually written by me. It comes from an interview for a magazine I did with him in New York, in 1989. At one point, to be provocative, I asked him what he thought of Ruskin and the cult of Nature. He leant across the table and asked in all earnest... read more...

Damien Hirst's forthcoming show of hand-done paintings at the Wallace Collection is a good example of the Hirst genius for display and marketing. The press release says stuff about Ruskin, intimacy, solitude and the greatness of the art of the past that fits strangely with these lightweight kitschy works.

In a kind of homage to Artforum's monthly 'Top Ten' column, Matthew Collings gives us his own current list of hot things, including Jeff Koons in the upcoming 'Pop Life' show at Tate Modern, four 'paint meisters' at SFMoMA, the Renaissance, Turner, and beauty, the subject of Matt's forthcoming BBC2 one-hour special.

I'm always scratching my head about the distinction that I believe should be made between the pleasures of beauty in art and the gratification of some sort of itch for contemporaneity. I look at Bonnard and am amazed at how beautiful it is. I look at Dan Graham and Robert Smithson, and I just don't think you can say the same thing.

Jeff Koon's current big show at the Serpentine Gallery in London is devoted to works from his "Popeye" series. It features paintings and polychrome sculptures. It's an opportunity to think about the bigger picture with Jeff - why is he good? Where does the pleasure lie?

The Tate is great. When I was young it was a tatty dump, now it's lovely and sophisticated. The shows of the permanent collection look good, as if someone's really thought about designing those spaces. At the moment you can see a show called "Classified." It's free-entry, and it contains work from the last couple of decades or so by British artists.

Many people don't expect contemporary art to be about beauty, but we're still human and the hunger for beauty is part of being human, like the tendency to be religious. The surroundings are where the action is - not the art but the stuff around it, is where beauty is. The contemporary art cult has all the voodoo mysticism of religion but the cult members let it off religion's other traditional task of providing rich all encompassing religion, instead it comes up with mental conundrums. Just a... read more...

At the Pompidou Centre all the usual display of art has been temporarily replaced. Instead of the usual it's the unusual: art by women. "Elles@Pompidou" is a re-hang pf the Pompidou's permanent collection with the men removed, replaced by women.

For a cave artist the cave is the temple, the outer form of the shaman-cave artist's psychic headspace. The act of painting the horse or lion or reindeer or bear or whatever, brings the animal's power from out there, the world, in here, the cave: the religious sanctuary. With contemporary art galleries, the horse is out of the picture, and with it the world, nature, and the soul, and instead we look to the gallery surroundings to feel that something is going on. ... read more...

I went to the opening of Abstract America, the new show at the Saatchi Gallery. This gallery is amazing. It must be one of the most beautiful in existence. You feel happy just being in it. I found the show totally enjoyable. I couldn't relate to everything on the same level of intensity but I didn't mind a few objects seeming a bit distanced. I liked the experience of seeing them go by. Saatchi is putting on the best art entertainment in town. ... read more...

Robert Morris's 1971 show at the old Tate Gallery was restaged last week at Tate Modern. On the BBC Radio Four programme, Front Row, a cultured line-up hopelessly out of its depth with art followed the lead of Tate Modern's press release and pretended to be delighted that the gallery had been turned into an adventure playground.

Falling asleep so many times in the movie Synecdoche made me reflect on the issue of success and failure in art. It is so unpredictable how they work: the boringness of Damien Hirst's non-stop drivel-a-thons whenever he's interviewed, versus the excitement of him being such a great success at making money. The leaden feeling of heavy nothingness through most of There Will Be Blood, the feeling afterwards of "Uh?" ... read more...

I recently received an advance copy of Ben Lewis's new film about the contemporary art market bubble, which comes out next week on BBC4. I loved the constant popping up throughout the film of a dim suntanned collector duo. I laughed at a spivvish auction guy who kept telling Lewis how art-historically important the work of various artists the spiv was professionally involved with was. I was intrigued by a leaked documents scandal at White Cube; at one point Lewis seemed to have single-handedly ... read more...

No one wants paintings just to be commodity objects. We want them to have significance and meaning. We have got ourselves into a wrong mindset where we think if there aren't obvious meanings then there isn't any meaning at all. Or if there is, it's not for us. We can't accept visual meaning or formal meaning as enough. We believe it's decoration only - we're right to think "decorative" is somehow wrong. ... read more...

The Whitechapel Gallery has reopened. Now it's got an expanded space and a new restaurant. Readers who don't live in London or the UK should know this is a great old public gallery in the East End. It has a good history of showing avant-gardism. Jackson Pollock was shown here. Picasso's 'Guernica' was as well. The makeover is great, architecturally speaking. As for the art, it's great too. Not because it's all actually great but because there are several different shows, each with its own cha... read more...

Matthew Collings engages in a discussion with Satan about the meaning of art and, along the way, invites him to see a new project opening this month at the deconsecrated church St Mary's in York where Collings and his partner Emma Biggs have created a series of paintings and a mosaic made of dug-up pottery shards from the thirteenth century.

Should art writing be high-minded and refined, with a lot of honing, corrections and rethinks, or should it be spontaneous like a blog? Should it be self-indulgent or earnestly careful and considered? If it's the latter does it run the risk of being sterile and boring? And is the problem of the former that while venting can be entertaining it kind of lowers the tone of the whole thing generally, the whole thing being this great enterprise, art, with all its philosophical, aesthetical, moral a... read more...

It's Good Friday. So here are twelve top Easter art works. Easter is the time of death and resurrection. For pagans it was more about rebirth than coming back from the dead exactly. Pagans weren't interested in anyone coming back from the dead. That was a wholly new Christian idea. Rebirth was connected to the seasons, whereas life after death and the kingdom of heaven and so on just had their own magnificent momentum and autogenesis. ... read more...

Robert Mangold is a New York minimal artist from the original 60s wave. He isn't well known in the UK. His exhibition at Parasol Unit (until 8 May) is his first big UK show. The first thing to say is how good this show is. It's striking to have an art gallery experience where there is not a sense of disparate or nondescript objects in a splendid or beautiful or delightfully designed space, but where the whole theme of beauty or visual richness (or whatever) isn't given over to the surrounding c... read more...

The question we need to ask about the new touring Picasso show, 'Picasso: Challenging the Past', where Picasso is shown in an old master context is, if it is true that modern art such as Picasso's is not a sort of punky despairing hollow sad laughter at classicism (as many people used to think), but an attempt to revive and perpetuate great artistic standards and ideals in the face of a sort of guardians-of-culture sector of society's forgetting of the ideals, and its interest instead in any old... read more...

In this month's Frieze magazine my series about contemporary art, This Is Modern Art, is criticised for being "an example of the self-conscious anti-elitism that Britain's Channel 4 pushed heavily in the late 80s and 90s". As I don't recognise this from my own experience I thought I'd try and recall the lead up to and execution of the series, which I wrote and presented 12 years ago. Channel 4 asked me to think about an idea for a series about modern art. I wrote a few pages of thoughts. One was... read more...

Today I got a message from the new managing editor at Modern Painters asking me to accept a 25 per cent cut in pay for my articles on the grounds that a downturn in advertising revenue had caused the magazine's budget to be reduced. My stuff is adored, I was told, and it was hoped I could be relied upon to keep supplying it despite a diminution of income. The event brought up the issue of the arbitrariness of money in relation to art, but also to everything. Later that day I went to see the "M... read more...

"Go to Milan and interview Rem Koolhaas about a project he's doing for Prada." These were my instructions from the Wallpaper commissioning editor. The last time I was there was 15 years ago. I was in a group exhibition curated by Liam Gillick. I did some posters for it. They showed only words. They told a story about Clement Greenberg which was grotesquely untrue but quite funny. I didn't see much of the city. One evening we all drove to Genoa for the opening of a show by Angela Bulloch. ... read more...

I read Dan Fox's Frieze magazine blog on the problem of ordinary newspaper art critics failing to be as informed and serious as Frieze writers. They have committed the sin of blasting off ignorant remarks about "Altermodern" at Tate Britain. I think that behind these issues of balance and level on the one hand and blinkered vision on the other is the problem of art-world introversion. And along with this, the art world's new weird ignorance about anything it doesn't happen to be immediately con... read more...

Should critics say if they think the art is great or boring or interesting or whatever, regardless of what the catalogue says? Surely to be respected at all as critics they should absorb the catalogue, look up anything they can't understand, apply all the newly gained knowledge to their memory of what they saw, and give the public a critical picture of whatever it was? I had this thought at the Tate Triennial as I watched a film called 'Giantbum', about people stuck in God's bottom. God was ment... read more...

When you see a very good painting by Robert Rauschenberg (below) you really get a blast of what can only be described as "beauty." But people outside the art world usually think modern art isn't concerned with beauty. How can they be enlightened? You'd need the wisdom of Socrates. Supposing he was here now, in his robes, kindly helping us to get out heads round complicated issues. He's just come back from the Tate Triennial. "Great," he says. "I loved all the energy. These kids are adorable... read more...

Contemporary artists always seem to be on the lookout for trivial experience that hasn't yet been made into art. A private view invite arrived from the ICA. I looked at the picture on the front - a photo of a familiar object. I thought, "It had to happen! Someone's made the memory stick into art!" What happened to giant mosaics in cathedrals with golden pictures of God and the angels? ... read more...

Shortly before Mary Heilmann's big show went up at the New Museum in New York last year I met her and had the following conversation. I like her. She's great. She stands for a new mood that makes sense. Painting can be narrative, it can be like songs, it can have ordinary meaning and it can be jokey. It can be all of these and still be elusive, transcendent, impactful, serious and difficult. ... read more...

Recently I caught up with Pierre Huyghe's installation 'Third Memory'. It made an impression on me, even though I don't necessarily think it's a fantastic work of art. In fact I think that, while it has some features that are accidentally moving, its true quality is very limited. Originally made in 1999 it's about John Wotjowicz (below), the real-life guy who tried to rob a bank in Brooklyn in 1972 in order to pay for gender-reassignment surgery for his male "wife" Earnest Aron. The events of... read more...

Trendies reading this will vaguely remember a photo from ages ago of an event by Joseph Beuys called 'Explaining Pictures To A Dead Hare'. The photo shows Beuys with a silver-painted face cradling a stuffed hare (below). I thought of this masterpiece when visiting the Royal Academy blockbuster, "Byzantium," a show far off the wavelength of anyone interested in forging a career in the art world today, full as it is of art obsessed by old-timey religion. After my first visit to the exhibition I wa... read more...

What is good about Cecily Brown is the combination of a more or less old-fashioned approach to painting and a sense of fun about being an art world star. One without the other is more expected. As a society we want achievers to be celebrities so we can tell that there really has been an achievement. Most of us are too distracted, uneducated, shallow or thick, or just too busy seeking fun, to have any other way of telling.
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Everyone at the Saatchi Gallery and Saatchi Online would like to wish all our members and visitors a very happy holiday and best wishes for 2009. While we take a break over the holidays there will still be lots to read on Saatchi Online's magazine, including the art highlights of the year chosen by critics, artists and curators, and Matthew Collings' column on the art world. There will be new films to watch on Saatchi Online TV and Showdown will carry on throughout the holidays so do continue to... read more...

Tate scores highly in Matthew Collings' list of the top shows of the year which includes German multi-media artist Heimo Zobernig at Tate St Ives, Mark Rothko at Tate Modern (below) and Francis Bacon at Tate Modern.

Lucky Kunst: The Rise and Fall of Young British Art by Gregor Muir is a new book that pretty much does what the subtitle says. A lot of the writing is plodding sludge summarising London, Marcel Duchamp, Neo-Conceptualism, fashion, music and the changing state of the British economy. These parts are like the commentary in a promo film on an international flight about the city you're just about to land in, but extended for millions of years instead of the usual twenty-five second bursts. Reading... read more...

In his essays and criticism Clement Greenberg, best known for his writing on Abstract Expressionism, looks at the problem of making art in a situation where there is a burden of history and precedent for any artist aware of history. What does the artist do? Follow the dominant visual tradition: the substitutes for seriousness: kitsch, the mass media, sensationalism; or try and access those lost traditions, in order to both give pleasure but also to supply a moral dimension to pleasure? The arti... read more...

In his weekly column 'Put Downs and Shut Ups' Matthew Collings wrote about a new book on the art world by Sarah Thornton and claimed to have met her only after the publication of her book in which he is listed as an interviewee. This was an error on Collings' part which Thornton wishes to correct. We publish her correction here with a response from Collings. ... read more...

Matthew Collings in this week's column on the art world sizes up this year's Turner Prize, the celebrations at Tate Britain hosted by Sir Nicholas Serota and Nick Cave, which Collings attended (below) and the wonderful opportuntities for social-climbing and socialising to be found at such art gatherings. With photographs by Dafydd Jones.

In a new column for Saatchi Online's magazine the critic and broadcaster Matthew Collings takes on the art world, delivering ruthless criticism and high praise where he sees fit. Here he wrestles with the work of painter Laura Owens - and enjoys a 'credit crunch sausage', care of Sadie Coles, along the way.

In a new column for Saatchi Online's magazine the critic and broadcaster Matthew Collings takes on the art world, delivering ruthless criticism and high praise where he sees fit. First to come under his scrutiny is the Frieze art fair, the genius of the Chapmans and 'art promo talk': 'There is something about the enthusiasm-rhetoric that art-world people go in for, pretending to speak from an inner core of experience, while actually not really knowing anything at all about what art is or how it... read more...

Channel 4 and the Saatchi Gallery announce today the two winners of 4 New Sensations, a competition for BA and MA students graduating from UK's art schools in 2008. They are Mark Davey (top), chosen by the judges, and Rob Sherwood (bottom), chosen by public vote.









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Voting is now open for the 2008 New Sensations competition. This year there will be two winners - one chosen by the judges - artist Yinka Shonibare MBE, Maureen Paley, the founder of the London gallery, Maureen Paley, critic and broadcaster Matthew Collings, and David Roberts, collector and founder of Gallery One One One in London - and won chosen by a public vote. To watch Saatchi Online TV's tour of the 2008 New Sensations exhibition, including interviews with each finalist, click here. Read... read more...

The 2008 New Sensations exhibition opens to the public on 15 October, and will feature the work of 20 graduates shortlisted for the competition including four finalists, Mark Davey, Amy Moffat, Rob Sherwood, Camilla Wills. We preview here the work which will be in the exhibition. All the works are for sale and entry to the exhibition is free.

In this extract from curator Paco Barragan's new book on art fairs - several of which open in London today (Frieze, Scope, Zoo) - he argues that it is the curator who holds the key to reinventing these economically driven events and injecting them with cultural and social content.

India's first contemporary art museum opens this weekend; 200 works by Damien Hirst, the most successful living artist, have failed to sell; Dasha Zhukova and boyfriend Roman Abramovich set to host Francis Bacon show in Moscow; graffiti artists take to the streets in support of Barack Obama; a lawsuit involving artist John Chamberlain and an alleged Warhol moves forward; a new boutique art fair opens in Singapore; Chinese customs ban work by Zhang Hongtu from being shown in Beijing; UK smoking b... read more...

New Sensations was launched by Channel 4 and the Saatchi Gallery in 2007 to find the most imaginative and talented arts students graduating in the UK. The competition is open to students graduating from a BA or MA course in 2008. Each student who entered the competition had to submit work from their degree shows, with a short pitch about a new work they would like to make. The four finalists of the 2008 competition are
Mark Davey (below), Amy Moffat, Robert Sherwood and Camilla Wills. The judge... read more...

Antony Gormley and Yinka Shonibare win the next two Fourth Plinth commissions in London's Trafalgar Square; contemporary Indian artists headline Sotheby's July sales; Steve McQueen chosen to represent the UK at the 2009 Venice Biennale, while Francis Upritchard and Judy Millar will represent New Zealand; and Martin Parr has won the PHotoEspaña Baume & Mercier Award 2008 in recognition of his work (below) and his influence on contemporary photography. ... read more...