Describing the figure of Charles Saatchi is a rather tough deed.  In the Seventies he could have been defined as the greatest English Art Director, considering that with his brother  Maurice he founded the advertising agency Saatchi&Saatchi, which with its campaigns saw Mrs Thatcher rise to power. But it is more complicated now to spend words about him. 

Until 9th January 2009, the Grand Palais in Paris will be hosting the biggest retrospective dedicated to the controversial artist Emil Nolde (1867-1956) who was rediscovered in all his expressive verve after the Nazis censured his works forbidding him to paint. It is a rich exhibition featuring 90 paintings and other 70 works, between watercolours, drawings and engravings.  The German painter, whose real name was Emil Hansen, was born in the German village of Nolde in the region of Schleswig Holstein at the boundary with Denmark. He later approached the art of painting, as he first started to work in a furniture factory to become a wood carver and illustrator.  After staying in Switzerland where he taught ornamental drawing, he got to know big cities like Munich and Berlin where, frequenting museums, he started to appreciate ancient art and some artists like Rembrandt, Daumier and Manet.

An original painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, portraying a “Naked Woman”, and a nature morte authenticated as a work by Edouard Manet, afterwards found to be a forgery, have been recovered by the Italian Carabinieri Corps of the operational department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, which has arrested three people for complicity in receiving stolen goods.
A mature Renoir, probably old-aged given some uncertainties in the brushstroke, stolen in 1975, whose traces had been lost for 33 years.  At last, the original painting, which has been attributed without doubt to the impressionist artist, can now be seen in the splendour of the female figure’s white carnation on the background of a bright landscape thanks to the Carabinieri Corps, to art critic Vittorio Sgarbi and, by ironic fate, to a ball hit by a little girl.

In the first semester of 2008 auctions, Francis Bacon was one of the protagonists par excellence.  In London last June, “Study for Heas of George Dyer” executed by the artist from Dublin in 1967 was the highlight at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale. But “Triptych, 1976” was even more important, realizing in May an extremely important record in the world of art: the canvas, sold by Sotheby’s for 86,281,00 dollars, set the new record for a work of contemporary art, breaking the record of “White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavander on Rose)” sold last year by Sotheby’s New York for 72,84 million dollars.
As a modern Caravaggio, the Irish Francis Bacon has become a true icon of the damned artist. Credit for this goes to a myth fuelled by himself and his life: the contrasts with his father, his journeys in the Thirties, his homosexuality, his tragic loves, his passion for gambling and pubs.

In Paris an exceptional foursome is preparing to celebrate the talent and genius of the great Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Four famous museums of the beautiful French capital will host, from the 8th October, an exhibition, “Picasso and masters”, dedicated to the Spanish artist and his creative dialogue with masterpieces seen and appreciated by him.   The main theme of the exhibition will be the confrontation between Picassan works and masterpieces by great artists such as Courbet, David, El Greco, Goya, Rembrandt, Velàzquez, Delacroix, Ingres, Cézanne, Matisse, Manet and others from whom he drew inspiration.

In September Sotheby’s will gratify the curiosity of various art lovers, without forgetting to satisfy also those who can afford statues of exceptional value and especially of extra large dimensions.  From 9th September to 2nd November, the luxuriant gardens of Chatsworth will be animated by the presence of extraordinarily large statues.  “Beyond Limits” is at its third edition bringing pieces of mighty proportions into the charming vegetation of the magnificent residence of Chatsworth, English treasure built in the 16th century by the Duke of Devonshire, already venue of many cultural events and residence that inspired Jane Austen.

Until 16th November London’s Tate Gallery will not be simply a museum, but also an original racing circuit put on by English artist Martin Creed. It is not a photographic exhibition nor a film production, and it does not involve manikins or robots in mimic fixity, but rather men in flesh and bone, from every walk of life, recruited by means of a public notice to  sprint at regular intervals and whisk away through the restrained corridors of the London museum. Indeed, the prestigious “track”, every thirty seconds, is beaten by about fifty hundred-metre sprinters running wildly along the 90 metres of perimeter of the Duveen Galleries. Thus, during the spectators’ ecstasy, between a landscape by Turner and the Preraffaellites’ elegance, an actual speed race takes place.