2024-04-25
Everything began with "Freeze," an exhibition organized in 1988 by loosely connected students at Goldsmiths College of Art in London. Over a dozen people studying together at the college decided to show their work to the world. The artists participating in the event were distinguished by their progressive approach to art and became known as Young British Artists.
YBA – characteristics of the group
The Young British Artist group shares an openness to using different, often readymade materials or wastes found by themselves, the shocking character of their works, and a capitalist approach to the creation of art – the desire to make money from their works. The group did not, however, adopt any specific rules determining its functioning or those concerning style; the approach to creation was free and individualized.
What were the Young British Artists inspired by?
The YBA's views on art were largely influenced by Marcel Duchamp, who with his ready-mades – works of art made wholly or partly from everyday objects – questioned the essence of artistic practice. Like Duchamp, best known for his "Fountain" (1917) urinal sculpture, the Young British Artists reflected on the definition and role of art in the world. They were equally inspired by the conceptual art movement, celebrating the concept of the work, which had emerged on the art scene two decades earlier.
Saatchi's support and YBA's international fame
The Young British Artists were supported by the Iranian-British art collector Charles Saatchi, who is partly credited with the success they achieved. The reason is that Saatchi was involved in organizing "Sensation," an exhibition at London's Royal Academy of Fine Arts, considered crucial to the YBA. It was then that more than 300,000 visitors had the opportunity to view the marcher's impressive art collection, largely consisting of controversial works by Young British Artists. The exhibition was still talked about months after its finale, with critics both negatively commenting on and enjoying the objects it featured.
Among them were YBA's iconic installations: "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of a Living Being," depicting a dead shark submerged in formalin, by Damien Hirst; Tracey Emin's "Everyone I've Slept With," consisting of a tent in which the artist embroidered the names of 102 people she slept with; and Marc Quinn's sculptural self-portrait made from his own frozen blood.
*The quote used as part of the title of this article is taken from Gregor Muir's book: "Lucky Kunst. The rise and fall of Young British Art."