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In the heart of St James’s, an ambitious new exhibition has opened, attempting nothing less than a panoramic retelling of London’s post-war art history. “Once Upon a Time in London” at Saatchi Yates brings together over 40 works by artists spanning three generations, from the likes of Francis Bacon and Paula Rego to rising stars such as Jadé Fadojutimi and Olaolu Slawn, all under one roof. House of Solo was invited to experience it firsthand.
Billed by its young founders as “our love letter to London”, the show unfolds as a cross-generational tribute to the city’s creative soul. It sidesteps the usual single-artist focus of commercial galleries in favour of a sweeping group narrative, placing veteran masters in dialogue with contemporary talents. The result is part historical survey, part curatorial statement about London’s enduring capacity to inspire new art.
Walking into Saatchi Yates’ airy St James’s gallery, visitors might encounter a Lucian Freud portrait or a Francis Bacon canvas, sharing space with a vibrant new work by an artist born decades later. This juxtaposition is by design. Once Upon a Time in London is organised as a multi-generational panorama of the city’s art scene, aiming to show how today’s creatives stand on the shoulders of their predecessors. Spanning from post-war titans to trailblazing newcomers, the exhibition “traces London’s evolution as a global capital for rule-breaking, genre-defining art.”
Paintings from the 1940s–60s by modern British masters, think Bacon’s psychologically charged figures or Frank Auerbach’s dense cityscapes, set an intense tone with their visceral, “violent, psychologically twisted” imagery. Nearby, a 1964 David Hockney canvas depicting an American desert scene hints at how the arrival of pop culture broadened the British horizon. By placing these historic works alongside contemporary pieces, the curators invite viewers to draw a line from past to present. The dialogue is often striking: a mid-century meditation on post-war angst might hang not far from a 2020s painting crackling with post-internet energy. It’s an unconventional approach for a private gallery. Yet, it succeeds in illustrating a core thesis that London’s art has constantly reinvented itself while retaining a certain rebellious spirit across eras.
The exhibition’s narrative is loosely chronological, beginning in the uneasy aftermath of World War II and moving toward the present. Early sections highlight artists who redefined British art in the mid-20th century. Alongside Bacon and Freud are fellow School of London figures like Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff, whose distorted portraits and city scenes captured the grit of post-war life. From there, the show jumps to the swinging 1960s and 1970s, the “golden years of the RCA (Royal College of Art)”,” when transatlantic influences grew, and British art embraced new vistas. A notable inclusion here is Hockney’s Arizona (1964), an acrylic vision of the American West painted after the artist’s first taste of life across the pond. It’s a vivid marker of how London’s painters were absorbing global pop culture on their terms.
Fast-forward to the 1990s, and the exhibition captures the anarchic energy of the Young British Artists (YBAs). This generation of graduates “didn’t ask for permission,” staging edgy DIY shows in disused shops and warehouses, a punk ethos that the exhibition foregrounds.
On display works emblematic of that era’s iconoclasm: for example, Damien Hirst’s gleaming medicine cabinet, stocked with rows of pills, transforms art into a pseudo-scientific experiment, the sterile pharmaceuticals provoking strangely emotional responses. Nearby, an early-’90s Jenny Saville painting (from her student days) confronts the viewer with the female form in a then-unseen light. These pieces still shock and provoke, underscoring how the YBAs blew apart conventions much as Bacon and company had done decades prior. The curators smartly contextualise these infamous works not as isolated provocations but as part of London’s long narrative of artistic rebellion. In doing so, they bridge the perceived gap between the establishment and the infant’s terrible: Hirst’s and Saville’s once-radical works now converse with their forebears, all as chapters in the same story
What truly distinguishes Once Upon a Time in London is its inclusion of very recent and even brand-new works alongside 20th-century classics. Rather than stop in the 2000s, the exhibition extends right up to artists who are only now emerging. For instance, a large figurative canvas by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye brings “a new viewpoint to the figurative painting tradition”, infusing the lineage of Freud and Bacon with contemporary perspectives on race and identity. On the abstraction front, the swirling colours of Jadé Fadojutimi’s painting represent how a young artist can inject “new energy to abstract painting”, carrying on a dialogue with the likes of Bridget Riley (whose op-art work also features in the show). The decision to place these works in a historical context elevates them: Fadojutimi’s bold gestures and Yiadom-Boakye’s moody palettes feel like the next chapter of a story rather than a separate conversation.
The curators also spotlight artists currently electrifying London’s scene. Oli Epp and Benjamin Spiers, for example, contribute surreal, darkly comic portraits that delve into the psyche of our digital age. Their works, filled with ironic details of modern life, resonate unexpectedly when viewed near, say, a Paula Rego painting of an older generation, revealing a shared interest in psychological storytelling, even if the idioms differ. Then there’s Olaolu Slawn, a twenty-something Nigerian-born painter whose graffiti-inflected style and “post-Brexit Nigerian chutzpah” inject a jolt of street energy to the gallery’s polish. One Slawn canvas on view even incorporates a painted Burberry scarf , a witty nod to British heritage luxury as commentary on “our obsession with branded luxury goods as symbols of our heritage”. By including such details, the exhibition highlights how today’s artists respond to the cultural icons and institutions around them (fashion included), just as previous generations of London artists responded to theirs. It’s a visual conversation across time: Tracey Emin’s confessional neon pieces and Gilbert & George’s subversive photo collages share the stage with Gen-Z painters, and surprisingly, the exchanges feel natural. The through-line is an iconoclastic spirit, a tendency to challenge the established order that “links [the] city’s artists over generations”. In effect, the show suggests that whether in 1955 or 2025, London produces artists who aren’t afraid to rip up the rulebook and start anew.
Beyond the artwork itself, Once Upon a Time in London doubles as a statement about the art ecosystem that nurtures creativity in the capital. Saatchi Yates, founded in 2020 by Phoebe Saatchi Yates and Arthur Yates, is a young commercial gallery with big ambitions to blur the lines between gallery, museum, and community space. In conjunction with the exhibition, they’ve launched a programme of events celebrating what they call London’s creatives. These events draw in contributors from various cultural corners: legendary restaurant St. JOHN is hosting a wine tasting alongside the art, starchitect Norman Foster has lent his expertise to the exhibition catalogue, and designer Nicky Haslam has even co-created a tongue-in-cheek “art world” tea towel for the occasion. By highlighting institutions “from the grand to the grassroots,” the gallery underscores that great art cities are sustained not just by artists and buyers but by a whole network of support. schools, eateries, architects, and beyond. It’s an unusually holistic approach for a gallery show, one more typically seen in biennales or museum retrospectives.
Most notably, Saatchi Yates used the opening of this exhibition to roll out the Saatchi Yates Membership, described as “the first art gallery membership programme” of its kind. The idea is borrowed from the museum world: members of the public can sign up to attend talks, previews, and events with the explicit goal of “making art more accessible to the general public, enriching the dialogue between contemporary art and common culture” In other words, the gallery is courting an audience beyond the usual circle of wealthy collectors. “As a gallery, we want to build a dialogue between the art world and the public,” explains Phoebe and Arthur Yates. It’s a bold gambit; commercial galleries traditionally prioritise sales over foot traffic, but one that aligns with the exhibition’s wider ethos of bridging gaps. By bringing in a broader public, the gallery aims to spark a city-wide creative conversation that keeps London’s art scene dynamic.
Ultimately, Once Upon a Time in London reads as a heartfelt paean to the city’s artistic resilience and diversity. “Since opening the gallery, all we have heard is how London as an art destination is being surpassed by cities like Paris, Milan and Dubai,” note Phoebe and Arthur Yates. This exhibition is their answer to the naysayers, a confident assertion that London’s art world, far from stagnating, continues to reinvent itself. By uniting post-war masterpieces with 21st-century works, the show makes a case that London’s creative flame burns as brightly as it ever has, passing like a torch from one generation to the next. Crucially, the tone is measured rather than triumphalist. The exhibition does not declare London “best” or “first”, but it does highlight something distinctive: a city that has weathered recessions, political upheavals and even a pandemic, yet still produces artists who “continue to make, to rebel, and to shape culture on a global scale.”
For a general viewer, whether an art aficionado or a curious passerby, the exhibition offers both an education and an inspiration. It demystifies some of the lineage of contemporary art by placing it in context, all while showcasing exciting new voices in British art. In doing so, Saatchi Yates has crafted a show that feels celebratory but not self-congratulatory, expansive but rooted in its locale. It’s a curated narrative of a city through the eyes of its artists, past and present. And fittingly, it welcomes the public to be part of that narrative. Once Upon a Time in London is open to the public at Saatchi Yates (14 Bury Street, London) until 17 August, inviting Londoners and visitors alike to reflect on the city’s artistic past and carry its creative story forward.
