These pictures show how the mass-market tactics of light entertainment are being taken into the art world — with the launch of a Pop Idol-style competition for artists to win hanging space at Charles Saatchi’s latest gallery.

Anyone with an artistic streak can submit images of their work to Saatchi’s website, where they will be judged by the public in a giant online talent contest.

The winner of the international competition, called Showdown, will receive £1,000 and the invaluable publicity afforded by a three-month showing in the Saatchi Gallery when it opens in West London in October.

From the crushed remains of a New York taxi to a photobooth that dispenses random photographs of Hungarians, and an oil painting of Sister Wendy, the art-loving British nun, the work offered so far on the site by about 2,000 artists and art students is sure to divide the voting public.

The website (www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown) went live on Monday and has already received more than 35 million hits.

Over the next six months the thousands of art works will be whittled down to twelve in a series of fortnightly votes. Visitors to the site will rate each work on a scale of one to ten and the dozen most popular art works will then compete against each another for the top prize. The runner-up will receive £750.

Ten years have passed since Saatchi revolutionised the British contemporary arts scene with his travelling exhibition Sensation.

The former advertising executive’s patronage made the likes of Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas notorious, rich and collectable.

Now, although he still spends his free time browsing through unpromising corners of East London in search of the next big thing, he is also seeking to tap into the power of the internet to uncover new talent. Showdown is an extension of Your Gallery, an online arts exchange on the Saatchi Gallery website that has been hailed as doing for artists what MySpace has done for musicians such as Lilly Allen.

Saatchi, whose previous gallery in County Hall on the South Bank closed in 2005, said yesterday: “ Showdown is a great way for artists to have their work shown to a wide audience; it’s very hard for most artists to get their work widely seen and this competition gives thousands of artists the chance to have their work seen by a global audience.”

A spokesman for the Saatchi Gallery added: “Judging by the number of hits per day the site is currently receiving, the winning artist’s work will have been selected by a big international audience, and will have every chance of becoming a global name overnight.”

Saatchi and his website development team were inspired by Hot or Not, the controversial website that invites men and women to enter pictures of themselves and then asks visitors to the site to rate their attractiveness.

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