Acquisitions take Saatchi back to Iraqi roots

Charles Saatchi is the art collector who creates trends. When he started amassing British art, the world flocked to buy works by the YBAs. He then turned his attention to American paintings and the Royal Academy showcased his collection with a sell-out exhibition. Saatchi moved on to Chinese contemporary artists and the market rocketed.

His latest artistic love affair, it has now emerged, is with contemporary paintings by emerging artists from Iran and Iraq. Mr Saatchi, who has never before bought a work of art by an artist from the region, has just acquired three paintings – one by the Iranian painter Rokni Haerizadeh and two works by the Iraqi Ahmed Alsoudani, who now lives in America.

There is now avid speculation that he is planning to put together an exhibition dedicated to the latest works emerging from the region when he opens his new gallery in central London.

Mr Saatchi admits that he had not been drawn to the region to search for talent but was drawn to these works as soon as dealers in Dubai suggested them. "One of the more unlikely places you expect to find a thrilling new artist would be Iran, but I was struck by this compelling picture of an Iranian wedding.

"I don't know if this will eventually lead to a full-blown survey of contemporary Arab art, though I am also rather interested by a young Iraqi artist, and if we find a few others over the next year or so who knows?"

Mr Saatchi, who was born in Baghdad but left as a child, denied that his interest in Iraqi art was sparked by his own personal history.

Haerizadeh, whose diptych, Typical Iranian Wedding, is now part of Saatchi's collection, is often said to reveal what lies beneath the façade of Iranian social customs. This work shows the segregated gathering of men and women in a wedding congregation on divided canvases. The banquet table is mysteriously empty on the women's side while the men indulge in culinary debauchery amid platters piled high with food.

Born in Tehran in 1978, the artist currently lives there but has shown work in China, Europe and America. Other works by him are inspired from the Persian book of the kings, Persian fables and tales of the celebrated poet Rumi.

Alsoudani, whose works We Die Out of Hand and You No Longer Have Hands have been bought by Saatchi, has alluded to Goya's Disasters of War in previous works, just as the Chapman Brothers have in their work which was subsequently bought by Saatchi in the 1990s. Alsoudani, 32, fled Baghdad for America after the 1990-91 Gulf War, and his large-scale semi-figurative drawings and paintings are said to bear some visions of the war-torn city he left behind. These works were discovered by Saatchi through a dealer in Abu Dhabi who sent him an image of the paintings.

Sotheby's first sale dedicated to contemporary works from the region in October last year made £1.6m in sales – double its estimated total.