October is Art season in London, and I love it. It’s a wonderful way to spend an evening, drinking champagne and looking at art. One of the best of all of the exhibition’s I have been to this year was the Art of Giving at the Saatchi Gallery.
With works from Banksy, The Chelsea football team, Anthony Quinn, Derren Brown, Vic Reeves, Noel Fielding, Alexa Meade, Gavin Turk and Boyarde Messenger
Some of my favourites included; Boyarde Messenger’s painted models on plinths, wearing Charlotte Dellal shoes. The Models had to be painted at Chelsea photographer Simon Addinsell’s flat causing chaos when they walked down the King’s Road.
Stephen Walter’s The Island is beautiful and full of detail, Russelll Young’s I like you, I miss you, I love you, I killed you ,made me stop and stare for a good few minutes and Derek Cattani’s photography of Christian the Lion made me want to get my credit card out and buy the lot. Another amazingly talented artist is Drew Walker. His portraits of celebrities are rich in detail.
There was a wonderful performance from Tallulah Rendall and Lord Jeffrey Archer did the auction. Encouraging everyone to open their wallets to great success.
Famously reclusive Banksy also made an appearance, even taking his rat for a touch up before it was auctioned off. If only I knew what he looked like….
13 charities reaped the benefits of the auction, including: Crisis, British Red Cross, Stepping Stones Nigeria and Independent Age.
http://www.artofgiving.co.uk/index.html
Hi Derek,
Thank you so much. Your work is really amazing. Incredibly generous of you to donate your work.
Best
Catherine
It was wonderful to be given the space to show my `Christian the lion in London 1970.` prints, as a complete photo story, It was an amazing event & the thousands that saw them were trilled to relive his life in London through some 40 prints on show, I was just standing and watching as part of the crowd in gallery 7 & was fascinated by just how many people knew of the story & actually brought tears to their eyes ! I am delighted to say that a large number of prints were sold over the three day Art of Giving event, & the money raised through those sales benefited The George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust and its wonderful work in Africa.
Well done to the Art of Giving for launching such a spectacular show. Derek Cattani.