Young British Art (Hardcover)

~ Dick Price (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A new era of British art began in 1988 when a group of anxious and ambitious Goldsmiths College students organized an independent exhibition of their work in an abandoned factory building in London. The show caught the attention of advertising magnate Charles Saatchi, who purchased a piece by its organizer, the now-renowned artist Damien Hirst. After that, Saatchi scoured artist-run alternative spaces and student degree exhibitions at British art schools, buying contemporary art in huge amounts and then curating it into hotly debated shows at his London gallery. When he exhibited his collection under the title "Sensation" at the Royal Academy, a record-breaking quarter of a million people attended. The show contained all the makings of an art-world melodrama, including Academy resignations, hostile critics, picketing protesters, a vandal, and security guards. Young British Art: The Saatchi Decade explains what all the fuss was about by presenting a comprehensive and visually arresting survey of this internationally notorious collection, which includes paintings, sculpture, photography, video, and installation art. It is the biggest individual collection of art in Britain today and perhaps the most coherent record of artistic activity in London during the 1990s.

Young British Art includes quotes from interviews with Hirst, Rachel Whiteread, Sarah Lucas, Gary Hume, and others who offer firsthand accounts, both positive and negative, of their experiences with Saatchi and the media, as well as fascinating testimonials about their newfound art-world celebrity and how it affects their work. It is lavishly illustrated with 600 full-color reproductions, including many of Hirst's animals in formaldehyde-filled vitrines, Whiteread's casts of empty spaces, Lucas's offbeat arrangements of everyday objects, and Humes's painted abstractions. Designed by Jonathan Barnbrook, this bright, bold hardcover is as frenetic as a long, crazed e-mail, with headings, borders, patterns, and picture graphics made from elaborate configurations of ASCII text or simple keyboard letters and punctuation marks. The images are arranged around a timeline that traces the social and political events of the '90s, and are accompanied by brief artist biographies as well as examples of press clippings from the media frenzy that descended upon the legendary "Britpack." Also included are essays by Richard Cork, senior art critic for the London Times; Sarah Kent, visual arts editor for London's Time Out magazine; and Dick Price, who writes, "The art of the past ten years included in this collection has made an indelible stamp on a generation of artists who will be making art into the next millennium." --A.C. Smith

From Library Journal

It is not unusual for an authorized catalog presenting a single collector's holdings to assert that the esteemed patron has changed the face of the art world. What is surprising is that, in the case of advertising tycoon Charles Saatchi, such claims may be true. Since 1987, Saatchi has not only collected the works of young, untested artists, but he has done so on an unheard-of scale (his purchases number over 1000) and has backed up his purchases with stipends, scholarships, and endless promotion. While his tastes are Catholic, his collection might be said to betray an affection for the glitzyAas does this book, which presents an astounding 800 works, many in beautiful, full-spread reproductions. Illustrations sometimes present works at strange angles or across the gutter, the ill-conceived chronological organization scatters each artist's works, and annoying graphics interfere with the readability of the three short essaysAonly one of which, a study of different artists' recollections of how the Young British Artists (YBA) movement has developed, is truly enlightening. Perhaps most frustrating, a treasure trove of newspaper articles about Saatchi and the various artists are reprinted in a nearly illegible manner. In light of the recent Brooklyn Museum of Art controversy, all but the smallest public libraries should have a record of the YBA movement and the collection that helped create it. But given the price of this flawed work, the catalog from the Sensation show (Thames & Hudson, 1998, pap. $29.95) is a better value for non-art libraries.AEric Bryant, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 615 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (June 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810963892
• ISBN-13: 978-0810963894
• Product Dimensions: 12.4 x 9.6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,401,388 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)