TheYoung British Artists, orYBAs[1]—also referred to asBrit artists andBritart—is a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London in 1988. Many of the YBA artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course atGoldsmiths, in the late 1980s, whereas some from the group had trained atRoyal College of Art.[2]
The scene began around a series of artist-led exhibitions held in warehouses and factories, beginning in 1988 with the Damien Hirst-ledFreeze and, in 1990,East Country Yard Show andModern Medicine.
They are noted for "shock tactics", use of throwaway materials, wild living, and an attitude "both oppositional and entrepreneurial".[3] They achieved considerable media coverage and dominated British art during the 1990s; internationally reviewed shows in the mid-1990s includedBrilliant! andSensation.
Many of the artists were initially supported and their works collected byCharles Saatchi. One notable exception isAngus Fairhurst.[4] Leading artists of the group includeDamien Hirst andTracey Emin. Key works include Hirst'sThe Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a shark preserved informaldehyde in avitrine, and Emin'sMy Bed, a dishevelled double bed surrounded by detritus.[2]
There is some disagreement as to the first use of the term "young British artists."Tate[5] claims that it wasMichael Corris in a footnote inArtforum, May 1992,[6] Others claim that it was Saatchi who had already entitled his exhibitionYoung British Artists I in March 1992.[7] The acronym "YBA" (or "yBa") was not coined until 1994.[8] It has become a historic term, as most of the YBAs were born in the mid-1960s.[9]
The core of the YBA group graduated from theGoldsmiths BA Fine Art degree course in the classes of 1987–90.Liam Gillick,Fiona Rae,Steve Park andSarah Lucas, were graduates in the class of 1987.Ian Davenport,Michael Landy,Gary Hume,Anya Gallaccio,Lala Meredith-Vula,Henry Bond,Angela Bulloch, were graduates in the class of 1988;Damien Hirst,Angus Fairhurst,Mat Collishaw,Simon Patterson, andAbigail Lane, were graduates from the class of 1989; whilstGillian Wearing, andSam Taylor-Wood, were graduates from the class of 1990, andJason Martin was graduated with the class of 1993. During the years 1987–1990, the teaching staff on the Goldsmiths BA Fine Art includedJon Thompson,Richard Wentworth,Michael Craig-Martin,Ian Jeffrey,Helen Chadwick,Mark Wallinger,Judith Cowan andGlen Baxter.
Gavin Turk andMark Francis are also part of the YBA group of artists. Turk and Francis studied atChelsea School of Art from 1986 to 1989, and at theRoyal College of Art from 1989 to 1991. Turk and Francis exhibited work in the SaatchiSensation exhibition at the Royal Academy.
A group of sixteenGoldsmiths students took part in a group exhibition of art, calledFreeze, of whichDamien Hirst became the main organiser; he was still in the second year of a BA in Fine Art.
Commercial galleries had shown a lack of interest in the project, and it was held in a cheap non-art space, aLondon Docklands admin block (usually referred to as a warehouse). The event resonated with the 'Acid house' warehouserave scene prevalent at the time, but did not achieve any major press exposure. One of its effects was to set an example of artist-as-curator—in the mid-1990s artist-run exhibition spaces and galleries became a feature of the London arts scene.[10]
There was a less prominent predecessor organized by artistAngus Fairhurst, featuring himself,Damien Hirst,Abigail Lane, andMat Collishaw in a small show calledProgress by Degree at the Bloomsbury Gallery of theUniversity of London (Institute of Education) shortly before Freeze.[11]
In liaison with Hirst,Carl Freedman (who had been friends with him inLeeds before Hirst moved to London and was helping to make Hirst's vitrines) and Billee Sellman then curated two influential "warehouse" shows in 1990,Modern Medicine andGambler, in a Bermondsey former factory they designated Building One. To stageModern Medicine they raised £1,000 sponsorships from artworld figures includingCharles Saatchi. Freedman has spoken openly about the self-fulfilling prophecy these sponsors helped to create, and also commented that not many people attended these early shows, includingFreeze.In 1990, Henry Bond and Sarah Lucas organised theEast Country Yard Show in a disused warehouse inLondon Docklands which was installed over four floors and 16,000m2 of exhibition space. Writing inThe Independent, art criticAndrew Graham-Dixon said:
"Goldsmiths graduates are unembarrassed about promoting themselves and their work: some of the most striking exhibitions in London over the past few months—"The East Country Yard Show", or "Gambler", both staged in docklands—have been independently organized and funded by Goldsmiths graduates as showcases for their work. This has given them a reputation for pushiness, yet it should also be said that in terms of ambition, attention to display and sheer bravado there has been little to match such shows in the country's established contemporary art institutions. They were far superior, for instance, to any of the contemporary art shows that have been staged by the Liverpool Tate in its own multi-million-pound dockland site."[12]
Established alternative spaces such asCity Racing at the Oval in London and Milch gave many artists their first exposure. There was much embryonic activity in theHoxton/Shoreditch area of East London focused onJoshua Compston's gallery. In 1991, theSerpentine Gallery presented a survey of this group of artists with the exhibitionBroken English. In 1992, Charles Saatchi staged a series of exhibitions ofYoung British Art, the first show included works bySarah Lucas,Rachel Whiteread andDamien Hirst.
A second wave of Young British Artists appeared in 1992–1993 through exhibitions such asNew Contemporaries,New British Summertime andMinky Manky (curated by Carl Freedman). This includedDouglas Gordon,Christine Borland,Fiona Banner,Tracey Emin,Tacita Dean,Georgina Starr andJane and Louise Wilson. One exhibition which included several of the YBA artists was the 1995 quin-annualBritish Art Show.
The Young British Artists revitalised (and in some cases spawned) a whole new generation of contemporary commercial galleries such asKarsten Schubert,Sadie Coles,Victoria Miro,Maureen Paley'sInterim Art, andJay Jopling'sWhite Cube.[13] The spread of interest improved the market for contemporary British art magazines through increased advertising and circulation.Frieze launched in 1991 embraced the YBAs from the start while established publications such asArt Monthly,Art Review,Modern Painters andContemporary Art were all re-launched with more focus on emerging British artists.
One of the visitors toFreeze wasCharles Saatchi, a major contemporary art collector and co-founder ofSaatchi and Saatchi, the London advertising agency. Saatchi then visitedGambler in a green Rolls-Royce and, according to Freedman, stood open-mouthed with astonishment in front of (and then bought) Hirst's first major "animal" installation,A Thousand Years, consisting of a large glass case containing maggots and flies feeding off a rotting cow's head. (The installation was later a notable feature of theSensation exhibition.)
Saatchi became not only Hirst's main collector, but also the main sponsor for other YBAs–a fact openly acknowledged by Gavin Turk. The contemporary art market in London had dramatically collapsed in mid-1990 due to a major economic recession, and many commercial contemporary galleries had gone out of business. Saatchi had until this time collected mostly American and German contemporary art, some by young artists, but most by already established ones.
His collection was publicly exhibited in a series of shows in a large converted paint factory building in St John's Wood, north London. Saatchi's Gallery inspired young artists to produce large concept artworks that would not fit in the usually small galleries in London at that time.[14] PreviousSaatchi Gallery shows had included such major figures asWarhol,Guston,Alex Katz,Serra,Kiefer,Polke,Richter and many more. In the early-1990s, Saatchi altered his focus to emerging British art.
Saatchi put on a series of shows calledYoung British Artists starting in 1992, when a noted exhibit was Damien Hirst's "shark" (The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living), which became the iconic work of British art in the 1990s,[15] and the symbol of Britart worldwide.[16] In addition to (and as a direct result of) Saatchi's patronage, the Young British Artists benefited from intense media coverage. This was augmented by controversy surrounding the annualTurner Prize, (one of Britain's few major awards for contemporary artists), which had several of the artists as nominees or winners.Channel 4 had become a sponsor of the competition, leading to television profiles of the artists in prime-time slots.
The consolidation of the artists' status began in 1995 with a large-scale group exhibitionBrilliant! held at theWalker Art Center a respectedart museum in Minneapolis, USA. The term "yBa" was already used in 1994[8] and later used by Simon Ford in a feature "Myth Making" in March 1996 inArt Monthly magazine.[17]
Art dealerJay Jopling began to represent YBAs Jake & Dinos Chapman, Tracey Emin,Marcus Harvey, Damien Hirst,Gary Hume,Marc Quinn,Gavin Turk and Sam Taylor-Wood, whom he married in 1998. Before Jopling,Karsten Schubert was the most important dealer of artists that were later called YBAs. Shortly after Freeze he exhibited Ian Davenport,Gary Hume, andMichael Landy in November 1988, who all exhibited in Freeze, in his gallery.[18]
In 1997, theRoyal Academy staged an exhibition of the private art collection ofCharles Saatchi titledSensation, which included many works by YBA artists.
The exhibition was actually a showing ofCharles Saatchi's private collection of their work, and he owned the major pieces. The liaison was effected by the Academy'sNorman Rosenthal, even though there was strong opposition from some of the Academicians, three of whom resigned. Controversy engendered in the media about the show, particularly over Marcus Harvey's workMyra, served to reinforce the YBAs' importance.[19] When the show toured to New York there was further controversy caused by the inclusion ofChris Ofili's workThe Holy Virgin Mary (1996).[19]
In 1997,Gillian Wearing won the annualTurner Prize. In 1998,Chris Ofili won the annual Turner Prize.
In 1999, Tracey Emin was nominated for theTurner Prize. Her main exhibit,My Bed, consisting literally of her dishevelled, stained bed, surrounded by detritus including condoms, slippers and soiled underwear, created an immediate and lasting media impact and further heightened her prominence. The emergence at the same time of an anti-YBA group,The Stuckists, co-founded by her ex boyfriend,Billy Childish, gave another angle to media coverage.
In 2003, YBAsJake and Dinos Chapman andAnya Gallaccio were nominated for the annual Turner Prize.
On 24 May 2004, afire in a storage warehouse destroyed some works from the Saatchi collection, including the Chapman Brothers'Hell and Tracey Emin's "tent",Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995.[20]
In 2008, YBAAngus Fairhurst died by suicide.
In the2011 Birthday Honours List,Sam Taylor-Wood andGillian Wearing were appointed to theOrder of the British Empire by QueenElizabeth II.[21]
Several of the YBAs have been elected as lifetime members of theRoyal Academy of Arts in London (founded by George III in 1768); hence they are "Royal Academicians," and may use the letters "RA" after their name to indicate this.
Richard Cork (at one time art critic ofThe Times) has been a staunch advocate of the artists, as has art writerLouisa Buck, and formerTime Out art editor,Sarah Kent. SirNicholas Serota has validated the artists by the nomination of several of them for theTurner Prize and their inclusion in theTate collection.
Maureen Paley said, "The thing that came out of the YBA generation was boldness, a belief that you can get away with anything."[23]
Speaking in 2009,Iwona Blazwick, the director of theWhitechapel Art Gallery, said, "The YBA moment is definitely now dead, but anyone who thinks they were a cut-off point is wrong. They began something which has continued to grow ever since. It's not over."[24]
In 1998, John Windsor inThe Independent said that the work of the YBAs seemed tame compared with that of the "shock art" of the 1970s, including "kinky outrages" at theNicholas Treadwell Gallery, amongst which were a "hanging, anatomically detailed leather straitjacket, complete with genitals", titledPink Crucifixion, by Mandy Havers.[25]
In 1999 theStuckists art group was founded with an overt anti-YBA agenda.[26] In 2002 Britart was heavily criticised by the leading conductor SirSimon Rattle, who was, in return, accused of having a poor understanding ofconceptual andvisual art.[27]
PlaywrightTom Stoppard made a public denunciation, andBrian Sewell (art critic of theEvening Standard) was consistently hostile,[28] as wasDavid Lee, the editor ofJackdaw.Rolf Harris, the television presenter and artist, singled out Tracey Emin'sMy Bed as the kind of installation that put people off art. "I don't see how getting out of bed and leaving the bed unmade and putting it on show and saying that's worth, I don't know £31,000 ... I don't believe it, I think it's a con."
ForJames Heartfield, "The 1990s art boom encouraged sloppiness. The Young British Artists preferred the inspired gesture to patient work. They added public outrage to their palettes, only to find that it faded very quickly."[29]
Members of the group are parodied in a regular cartoon strip by Birch, titled "Young British Artists", in the British satirical magazinePrivate Eye.[citation needed] The scene is also parodied inJilly Cooper's 2002 bonkbusterPandora.[30]
Female artists were distinctly a minority amongst the male dominated environment of the Young British Artists. Individuals such asSarah Lucas,Jenny Saville andRachel Whiteread have varied levels of neglect within their media portrayals, as well as incomparable in notoriety to male YBA peers such as Hirst.[31]
The University of Sussex's Art Society Journal describes how feminists in the 1980s influenced the female members of the Young British Artists' artwork through the strategy of subverting feminine stereotypes.[31] Other discourse around female YBA work include a discussion ofRachel Whiteread's sculpture practice. Whiteread has been said to disrupt the 'clear' concept of women making 'female work'.[32] Her workNine Tables attempts to exist within a third space, where the forms can't be physically gendered, but still viewed as a feminine objects.[32] Daniel Ogilivie has expressed howJudith Butler's concept of which "…the mere act of 'doing', of casting the object, that expresses the gender and it is not any anthropomorphic association in the artwork itself," creates the feminine within Whiteread's work.[32]
With the prevalence of feminist ideology in society and the contemporary art, critics have argued that female artists likeJenny Saville in the 1990s investigated the contrived idea of 'feminity' made by the Patriarchal Structure.[33] While attending art school in Cincinnati, Saville's feminist passion was conceived through a realisation of gender within art history. In her own words, she discovered that, "I'd always wondered why there had been no women artists in history. I found there had been – but not reported. I realized I'd been affected by male ideas, going through a male-dominated art college".[34] Now consciously aware of institutional patriarchy, Saville began to paint female nudes that were not idealised. Rather than continue the recognised historical male view of female bodies, Saville created depictions of natural women with genuine flaws. Pubic hair trailing up stomachs and around thighs, discoloured skin and areas of excess flesh.[34] Deconstructing the feminine body, Saville has stated that, "I'm not trying to teach, just make people discuss, look at how women have been made by man. What is beauty? Beauty is usually the male image of the female body. My women are beautiful in their individuality."[35]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
