A Kunsthalle for the Kardashians

Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories.

Pity the poor old Saatchi Gallery. Once upon a time, Charles Saatchi’s exhibition space could wow the critics and public alike with sensational new art, but more recently the cognoscenti have given its shows the thumbs-down. Last year, Adrian Searle opened his review of ‘Champagne Life’ by pointing out that ‘The Saatchi Gallery is a place I rarely think about or visit nowadays, but when I do I always come away wondering at the point of it.’ Mark Hudson’s review of ‘Painters’ Paintings’ appeared under the header ‘The future of art? You must be joking’.

So it’s good to hear that the Saatchi Gallery is back tackling subjects with some serious intellectual heft. Last Friday, as London fashion week drew to a close, the Saatchi Gallery played host to a pop-up event laid on by E! Entertainment Television to celebrate 10 years of its flagship reality show Keeping up with the Kardashians. 

Apparently ‘an absolute must for all-super fans of the show’, the ‘immersive experience’ featured a host of attractions including ‘contouring booths’, a backdrop for re-enacting the wedding of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West and, according to the Guardian, ‘a neon timeline of the show’s ascent, modestly contextualised within major world events, pasted across one wall’. Laugh if you will, but the (free) tickets for the exhibition were reportedly all snapped up within hours of its announcement. Rakewell can only suppose his invitation was lost in the post…

Got a story for Rakewell? Get in touch at rakewell@apollomag.com or via @Rakewelltweets.