As is the case every morning, I opened up my newsfeed reader and skimmed over the hundreds of headlines that posted overnight. I have one folder called “Art Crap” that houses feeds from Art Blogs and ArtsJournal.com. I check it only out of obligation these days. I say obligation because I tend not to squalor in art world gossip, blasé informative pieces about who just filled the director’s seat at the [fill in the blank] Museum, and how much money a painting by a monkey just fetched at auction. I prefer to read honest, insightful writing about the possibilities of art that is being and will be made.

I generally skim over the headlines in my “Art Crap” folder but rarely ever click on a story or read further than two sentences in before I move along. This morning one headline caught my eye, not because of the content (heaven knows, it’s not because of the content). Only the headline caught my eye: “Has Saatchi Lost His Grip?”

Charles Saatchi has been a central art world figure as a patron and promoter of young contemporary British art. For the uninitiated, you have probably heard of him or at least exhibitions of his collections. The 1999 “Sensations” show at the Brooklyn Museum so tousled Mayor Giuliani’s hair… er, scalp… that he threatened to yank $7 million in municipal funding from the space. But enough about the past, let’s get to the present. Is Saatchi losing his grip? The Guardian article that posed the question didn’t seem to have any answers. Yet, I have one damning piece of evidence to suggest that he is losing his grip: His website (notice the link to my site under the “Miscellaneous” heading).

The man has clearly lost it.

Update (09/30/05): The link is dead, long live the link! Saatchi’s people pulled my link today. I guess there’s no jokes about Saatchi “losing it” in the Saatchi household. There are two ironies at play here: 1) I was actually poking fun at myself, not Saatchi; and 2) The condition under which Saatchi’s site will link to your site is only if you display a link to saatchi-gallery.cok.uk on your site. So once I actually linked to their site, they yanked the link to mine.

I’ll have a screenshot of the former link by Monday.

Update (10/03/05): The screen shot is here.