Young British Artists
Description
The Young British Artists, or YBAs - also referred to as Brit artists and Britart - 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 at Goldsmiths, in the late 1980s, whereas some from the group had trained at Royal College of Art.
The scene began around a series of artist-led exhibitions held in warehouses and factories, beginning in 1988 with the Damien Hirst-led Freeze and, in 1990, East Country Yard Show and Modern Medicine. Read more ↗
Key Artists
Damien Hirst
Leading figure of the YBAs who curated the groundbreaking 1988 Freeze exhibition and became world-renowned for his preserved animals in formaldehyde vitrines.
Tracey Emin
Major YBA star whose intensely confessional, autobiographical works like 'My Bed' shattered boundaries of intimacy and public art.
Sarah Lucas
Key YBA sculptor known for bawdy, irreverent visual puns utilizing everyday throwaway materials to interrogate gender and sexuality.
Gary Hume
Prominent YBA painter who gained early acclaim at Freeze for his high-gloss household paint compositions depicting institutional hospital doors.
Rachel Whiteread
Celebrated YBA sculptor and first woman to win the Turner Prize, renowned for casting the negative spaces of domestic objects and architectural structures.
Chris Ofili
Renowned YBA painter whose vibrant, multi-layered canvases incorporating elephant dung and religious iconography sparked intense debates at the Sensation exhibition.
Marc Quinn
Prominent YBA sculptor who created visceral shock art self-portraits cast in frozen pints of his own blood and provocative anatomical statues.
Famous Artworks
Fun Facts
The Young British Artists scene began outside of traditional commercial galleries when a group of enterprising Goldsmiths students led by Damien Hirst organized the Freeze exhibition inside an abandoned Port of London Authority administrative building in 1988.
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org
Advertising mogul Charles Saatchi became the defining patron of the YBA movement when he purchased many of the artists' entire graduate outputs and showcased them in his massive 1997 Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts.
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org