Britart movement 1990s

Britart movement 1990’s:

Brit Art was a movement that began in Great Britain during the 90’s that gained international recognition and acknowledgement. The movement was called YBA (Young British Artists) who exhibited together in warehouses and factories. There form of art was mostly about creating controversial art that made people think about things – maybe demystifying objects and reintroducing them in a complete new concept of art. One of the most famous artist from the YBA is Damien Hirst known for his series of dead animals (sheep as well as a tiger and a cow) that were preserved and exhibited as an obvious symbol for death. Hirst’s work mostly revolved around the subject death and is preliminary seen in all his exhibitions and installations. He isn’t just known for his art pieces but also for his inappropriate comment about September 11 with congratulating the terrorist organisation to showing everybody that America is vulnerable – he regretted his comment a year later and apologised to the world. An interesting fact about Damien Hirst might be that he first got rejected from Art College but after taking a Foundation Diploma course he studied Arts at the Leeds College of Arts, he also studied at Goldsmiths, University of London where he studied Fine Arts.

His first famous piece that got known worldwide was when he first exhibited at a warehouse exhibition and displayed a shark that was preserved in formaldehyde – hanging in a vitrine. Some of his art was called to “disgusting” and controversial that the New York health officials banned some of his work and it wasn’t shown in New York. Damien Hirst seems to have had and still has a liking for showing dead animals preserved and displayed in different ways – there was an art piece entitled Mother and Child Divided and the art piece actually consisted of a cow and a calf cut into different pieces and displayed in different cabinets. He also had an art piece where he showed rotting animals.

The YBA was also knows for its shock art and its sometimes rather “disgusting” exhibitions. On the other hand the YBA artists showed a boldness that had never been there before in art – it was about shocking people and there seemed to have been no limits in what is okay to create and when art is not art anymore because of its subject.