Saatchi straddles porn to promote new sensation

Charles Saatchi was today embroiled in a controversy over pornographic content in his new Royal Academy exhibition.

The millionaire art collector's new show, USA Today, will feature more than 150 works by 40 up-and-coming American artists when it opens at the RA next month.

It is Mr Saatchi's first show at the 238-year-old institution since the controversial Sensation in 1997 which turned Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin into household names.

Among the works at USA Today are Monica, a painting by Pennsylvanian artist Gerald Davis, which depicts a young girl with pompoms on her socks engaged in oral sex.

Davis said: "I don't think I fully understood a lot of these things at the time and that's why it's interesting to meditate on them with an adult perspective."

He added: "I realise that childhood sexuality is a taboo subject and can offend some people and be exciting to others."

Mr Saatchi, who is married to TV chef Nigella Lawson, said: "There are no portraits of child killers but those who are in the business of being offended shouldn't be too disappointed."

Other exhibits include Lara Shnitger's sculpture entitled I Want Kids, in the shape of a giant phallus. The artist rejected notions of paedophilia, arguing her work was a "sort of fertility symbol".

Norman Rosenthal, the RA's exhibition secretary, who co-curated USA Today with Mr Saatchi, said he was "a little fearful" when the exhibition was first mooted, but described it as "the next great show".

He said: "It doesn't mean any artists condone paedophilia, but it doesn't mean to say you shouldn't confront it - just as one confronts issues of the environment or global politics."