Photo: londondrum.comUseful things to know before your visit
Address: Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Road, Chelsea SW3 4RY. Website: saatchigallery.com
How much do the tickets cost?
The Saatchi Gallery is free, but temporary exhibitions might cost extra.
What are the opening hours?
Opening times are 10am to 6pm (Mon-Sun). Last entry is 40 minutes before closing time, or 1 hour for ticketed exhibitions.
How much time do you need?
A typical visit to the Saatchi Gallery takes 1 hour.
Which buses go to the Saatchi Gallery?
Bus routes 11, 19, 22, 49, 137, 211 and 319 all stop close by.
Which is the closest train station?
The nearest station is Sloane Square, which connects with the Circle and District lines. It only takes three minutes to walk to the Saatchi Gallery.
Which other attractions are nearby?
Here are three attractions within 15 minutes walk of the Saatchi Gallery: Royal Hospital, National Army Museum and Chelsea Physic Garden.
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Email My review of the Saatchi Gallery
You don’t want to listen to me when it comes to art because I haven’t got an artistic bone in my body (hey, at least I’m honest!) but I do know what minimalism is, and the Saatchi Gallery is a minimalist gallery of modern art. That is how I would describe it, because there’s hardly any art inside. It’s all pine floors and bright white lights illuminating bare white walls – it’s all wall. If you like staring at the wall then you’ll love it.
Gone are the days when you looked at a picture and admired the artist’s skill with a paintbrush because it’s all about the message these days. If the Saatchi Gallery commissioned you to do a piece about global warming then don’t bother painting a rainforest – they would never show anything like that. You’d have better luck placing an ice cube on a tree stump and filming it melt. If you called it something pretentious like The Iceberg’s Final Tears then they’d snap it up.
Considering that this is supposed to be one of London’s leading art galleries you might expect to find a few famous names inside, but if you’re hoping to see some Andy Warhol’s and Piet Mondrian’s then forget it – go to the Tate Modern instead.
The gallery doesn’t have a permanent collection so what I describe to you now will have disappeared by the time you arrive, but don’t worry because that will be a blessing – these aren’t the kind of pieces you’ll want to see twice. Let me describe them to you so you can see what I mean. I’m staring at three big canvases at the moment: three big faces. One face consists of four ripped bits of sellotape. The second face has got a red line for his lips and a crumpled up piece of notepaper for his nose.
The next room just looks like graffiti – the kind of pictures that you find flaking away in the stairwell of an abandoned flat.
The guy next-door to that has totally wrecked a rainbow, mixing up the darkest and dirtiest colours he could find and smeared them in a giant arc across his sheet. There are plenty of things that you can do with a rainbow, wear it as a novelty tie or use it as a ribbon to wrap up some presents, but please not this. He’s sucked all the sunshine out of it and left us with the shrivelled husk.
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What do you think? (3)
Ask a question, or share your experience of the Saatchi Gallery
scopie Is it free. (reply)
Craig Hi Scopie. The main gallery is always free, but they sometimes have a temporary exhibition with you’ll have to pay to see. (reply)
KDerry I like the Saatchi Gallery and think it’s a great place to see lots of new artists that you probably won’t have come across before. The Tate has some great works but it can get stale viewing the same famous paintings which have become over-familiar to art lovers. So why not sample something new and contemporary? (reply)
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