Young British Artists

Young British Artists or YBAs is the name given to a group of conceptual artists, painters, sculptors and installation artists based in the United Kingdom, most (though not all) of whom attended Goldsmiths College in London. The term has dropped out of use as most of the YBAs are now in their forties. The work of the group was dubbed Britart, the phrase being attributed to a series of exhibitions organised at the Saatchi Gallery in 1990/1. The term has dated somewhat.

The Saatchi Effect

One of the visitors to Freeze was Charles Saatchi, the notorious contemporary art collector and co-founder of Saatchi and Saatchi, the London advertising agency. Saatchi started collecting the Young British Artists' work, and the rest is history. It was an interesting move for Saatchi at that time. The contemporary art market in London had dramatically collapsed in mid1990 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.) This was publicly exhibited in big, long-running exhibitions in a converted factory building in St John's Wood, north London. Saatchi Gallery shows included such major figures as Warhol, Guston, Alex Katz, Serra, Kiefer, Polke, Richter and many more. Now Saatchi turned his attention to this new breed of Young British Artists. There was much concern when Saatchi divested himself of some of his earlier collection, since it had a significant effect on the value of many of the artists whose works he sold.

Related Topics:
Charles Saatchi - Saatchi and Saatchi - Warhol - Guston - Alex Katz - Serra - Kiefer - Polke - Richter

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