Jenny Saville
When you think of the Young British Artists (YBAs), chances are Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Chris Ofili and the Chapman Brothers immediately spring to mind. The era is shaped by their shock appeal, throwaway materials, the “Sensation” show and Charles Saatchi’s patronage. But these artists were just a few of the creative individuals to spearhead the Nineties Britart movement.
Now, curator Nicolas Trembley and selected galleries are taking a step back in time to revisit the seminal exhibitions from this period. As part of Frieze London 2016, “the Nineties Section” highlights the collaborations that impacted London, Paris, Cologne and New York’s contemporary art scenes.
To honour this event, we look at some of the underrated YBAs who also helped to define the period.
Rachel Whiteread. “Concrete and Steel – 78.8×42.9 inches (200x109cm), 2012 Image from awareeomenartists.com
Rachel Whiteread
Rachel Whiteread was the first woman to receive the Turner Prize in 1993. She won with her sculpture “House”, which replicated the dilapidated interior of a London home. Her work often casts the negative space underneath a chair or around an object, using this as an allusion to the embedded human contact in an environment. Whiteread also won the esteemed commission to design Vienna’s Holocaust memorial, a project that was completed in 2000.
Jenny Saville. In The Flesh – Fulcrum, 1998. Image from standard.co.uk
Jenny Saville
The human body is an endless source of inspiration for Jenny Saville. Her behemoth oil paintings are luscious impressions of surface that most famously depict large, fleshy female forms. Each figure is a sculptural demonstration of anatomical extremes that has been modified surgically or by some sort of trauma. The artist was given the title of Royal Academician by London’s Royal Academy, and her opus is often compared to that of Rubens and Lucien Freud.
Fiona Rae, Untitled (Emergency Room), 1996 and Untitled (Yellow), 1990. Images from tate.org.uk
Fiona Rae
Utilising a peculiar technique that involves dragging, scraping and scumbling marks over flat planes of colour, Fiona Rae creates striking abstract paintings that continue to receive praise. Following a shortlist spot for the 1991 Turner Prize, the artist has gone on to collect accolades from London’s Royal Academy in 2002 and Goldsmiths University in 2015. Her tightly packed, masterfully controlled process underpins a much more spontaneous mark making style that appears accidental. In recent years, Rae’s work has evolved into a formalised, dense aesthetic that draws on recurring motifs.
Pieta (First Version), 1996. Angus Fairhurst. Image from tate.org.uk
Angus Fairhurst
One of the lesser known, more mischievous members of the YBAs, Angus Fairhurst liked to poke fun at the arts establishment. His ever-evolving style ranged from installation works to irreverent practical jokes. Following his untimely death in 2008, Fairhurst is fondly remembered for instigating a hostile telephone conversation between two gallery employees when he connected them and held the receivers together. The childish prank was considered an “act of cultural terrorism against the incestuous, gossipy and self-regarding world of contemporary art” and in 1988, he exhibited work alongside fellow YBAs Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst at Tate Britain for the inanely but brilliantly titled show “In-a-Gadda-da-Vida”.
Mark Wallinger, Ecce Homo, 1999. Image courtesy of Linda Nylind
Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger admits that he is preoccupied with “the politics of representation and the representation of politics.” His multi-disciplinary depictions of the British class system and history earned him the Turner Prize award in 2007. In 1999, Wallinger made a marble sculpture entitled “Ecce Homo”, featuring barbed wire and gold leaf for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalger Square. His signature cynicism and humour depicted Pontius Pilate presenting a life-sized, Christ-like figure to the Judeans, and was Wallinger’s appeal to end racial and religious segregation.
The Nineties section is on display at Frieze London 2016, which runs from 6 until 9 October