Charles Saatchi's grip on the art world is likely to loosen as it becomes clear that, with his "Triumph of Painting" show, he is following, not leading, the pack. So who will fill the power vacuum? The likely candidate is not just another big collector, but someone who has discerned a different source of influence. 2005 is the year in which it will become apparent whether the Canadian millionairess Louise MacBain will succeed in her ambition to create a new model for tugging global art strings from her London base. Her masterplan is novel, not to say radical. Rather than just artworks, she is collecting all the sources of information about the art world available to her very considerable means. This began when she resigned as chief executive of the auction house Phillips de Pury and, in 2003, bought Art + Auction (the bible of the US market). Her Bermuda-based private company, LTB Holding, then entered into a frenzy of acquisitions. MacBain bought the US Museums Magazines portfolio of 50 magazines and comprehensive gallery listings, which she plans to expand by launching 25 new titles across Europe. Then, last year, she snapped up Gordon's Art Reference Products, which provides the ultimate sources of pricing information for the US art market elite. And that's just for starters. Naturally, MacBain has become a rich source of bitchy art-world gossip, but as the full scope of her plans materialise, that is likely to graduate to bitchy mainstream media gossip.
MacBain now owns a near-complete encyclopaedia of prices and listings worldwide and, presumably to the horror of the secretive art market, she wants to make all this readily available. She has bought the domain name artinfo.com and, later this year, will relaunch it as a sort of conduit for all the info she now possesses, creating a "Bloomberg" of the art world.
The next phase in MacBain's bid for world domination is to take over the sources of ideas. Last year she bought 35,000 square feet of warehouse space in Notting Hill, where she plans to launch what she calls an "art Davos," and is reported to have shown an interest in owning Sotheby's Institute, the auction house's educational arm. But it is with her magazines that MacBain's desire to be art's ultimate "communication tool" will be most visibly tested. Having bought the Paris-based fashion magazine Spoon in April 2004, she snapped up Modern Painters in September and, this year, plans to launch no less than three new titles of her own—one on art and design, one about the market and one for cultural tourists. Opening bids for this page, Louise?
Will Alsop: unbowed by Liverpool snub
When Liverpool backtracked on Will Alsop's "Fourth Grace" waterfront scheme for the city's year of culture in 2008, the architectural wunderkind might have been forgiven for toning his ideas down a bit. The landmark design was vast and, city councillors grumbled, running out of control. When they pulled the plug, it forced Alsop to restructure his firm to cope with the financial fallout. He might have slunk off bitterly after that, not least because Fourth Grace was the flagship project which helped the city win its bid for European cultural status. But Alsop is back this month with an exhibition in Manchester's Urbis centre, which simply sails over Liverpool. He envisages a "SuperCity" stretching from Liverpool to Hull, in which the M62 corridor becomes a single urban entity, embracing Barnsley, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds, Sheffield and York. You could call it masterplanner's revenge.
What's with Wales?
Two unexpected features of devolution are currently being expressed in Wales. The first is that, instead of giving a new lease of life to the arts, it seems to diminish cultural freedom. The second is that, when this happens, nobody pays much attention. Thus it was, at the end of last year, that the Welsh assembly dispensed with the "arm's-length principle" that has governed arts funding in Britain since 1946, and transferred decisions on all the main Welsh arts organisations away from the Arts Council to the government. Outside Wales, the story barely got reported.
