- Industry: Art history
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In the late 1980s British art entered what was quickly recognised as a new and excitingly distinctive phase, the era of what became known as the YBAs—the Young British Artists. Young British Art can be seen to have a convenient starting point in the exhibition Freeze organised, while he was still a student at Goldsmiths College in London in 1988, by Damien Hirst, who became the most celebrated, or notorious, of the YBAs. Goldsmiths, which was attended by many of the YBAs, and numbered Michael Craig Martin among its most influential teachers, had been for some years fostering new forms of creativity through its courses that, for example, abolished the traditional separation of the media of art. The label YBA turned out to be a powerful brand and marketing tool, but of course it concealed huge diversity. Nevertheless certain broad trends both formal and thematic can be discerned. Formally, the era is marked by a complete openness towards the materials and processes with which art can be made and the form that it can take. Leading artists have preserved dead animals (Damien Hirst), crushed found objects with a steamroller (Cornelia Parker), appropriated objects from medical history (Christine Borland), presented her own bed as art (Tracey Emin) made sculpture from fresh food, cigarettes, or women's tights (Sarah Lucas), made extensive use of film, video and photography, used drawing and printmaking in every conceivable way, increasingly developed the concept of the installation (a multi-part work occupying a single space), and not least, refreshed and revitalised the art of painting.
Industry:Art history
Group Zero or Group O, often referred to simply as Zero. German group formed in Dusseldorf in 1957 by Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, joined in 1960 by Gunther Uecker. A number of other artists were associated or exhibited with Zero, most notably Yves Klein and Jean Tinguely, as well as Pol Bury and Daniel Spoerri. The name refers to the countdown for a rocket launch and according to the group is meant to evoke 'a zone of silence (out of which develops) a new beginning'. Zero was in reaction against the subjective character of the prevailing Tachisme or Art Informel and practised a form of Kinetic art using light and motion that they felt opened up new forms of perception. Three issues of a journal, Zero, were published, in April and October 1958 and July 1961. The group dissolved in 1966.
Industry:Art history
triptych, is painting of three panels, from Greek ''ptychi'', =side, fold etc
Industry:Art history
Family name of dynasty that from 1485 to 1603 provided five British monarchs from Henry VII to Elizabeth I (Elizabethan). As cultural term tends most usually to refer specifically to reign of Henry VIII and his two immediate successors Edward VI and Mary I. Art in England during Henry's reign exemplified by Holbein who created iconic image of the King (National Portrait Gallery, London). Holbein had English follower, Bettes. Holbein succeeded by Scrots as court painter to Henry, and then Edward. Mary's court painter was Eworth, who remained active well into reign of Elizabeth and is now seen as a dominant figure of the time.
Industry:Art history
A style of painting developed in the 1970s that combined fine draughtsmanship with images that were considered ugly. These were rendered with a chilling photographic clarity designed to highlight the shallow and alienating brutality of the modern world. Many of the artists associated with the movement were originally members of the cooperative gallery Grossgörschen 35, founded in Berlin in 1964. Arguments between the group led to a split in 1966, and Ulrich Baehr, Charles Diehl, Wolfgang Petrick and Peter Sorge went on to start the Galerie Eva Poll, which became home to this new brand of Realism.
Industry:Art history
First used in relation to the cultural phenomenon of the 1960s and early 1970s, exemplified in what was called the underground press, magazines like Oz, International Times, East Village Otherand The San Francisco Oracle and in the comix of West Coast America. Its precursors were the Beat Generation and the Paris Existentialists, groups that were perceived to exist outside or on the fringes of popular culture. These days the term Underground art is used to describe a subculture of art, like Graffiti art or Comic Strip art. Since the late 1990s the Internet has become a forum for underground art thanks to its ability to communicate with a wide audience for free and without the support of an art establishment. (See Net art)
Industry:Art history
From Italian term verismo, meaning realism in its sense of gritty subject matter. Was originally applied around 1900 to the violent melodramatic operas of Puccini and Mascagni. In painting also has come to mean realism in its modern sense of representing objects with a high degree of truth to appearances. See realism, modern realism, naturalism.
Industry:Art history
Blanket term referring to almost every aspect of British life and culture during Queen Victoria's long reign from 1837 to 1901. In relation to social behaviour, art and design however, it carries connotations of stuffiness, repressiveness and rigid devotion to tradition. In art specifically the term is perhaps exemplified in the genre painting which provides an extraordinary panorama of the life of the period, including Rural Naturalism and Social Realism, but Victorian genre perhaps particularly associated with the sentimental and reassuring work of Wilkie and his followers.
Industry:Art history
The introduction of video in the 1960s radically altered the progress of art. The most important aspect of video was that it was cheap and easy to make, enabling artists to record and document their performances easily. This put less pressure on where their art was situated giving them freedom outside the gallery. One of the early pioneers of video art was Bruce Nauman who used video to reveal the hidden creative processes of the artist by filming himself in his studio. As video technology became more sophisticated, the art evolved from real-time, grainy, black and white recordings to the present day emphasis on large-scale installations in colour. Bill Viola's multi-screened works are theatrical and often have a narrative; and Gillian Wearing uses a documentary style to make art about the hidden aspects of society.
Industry:Art history
The computer scientist Jaron Lanier popularised the term virtual reality in the early 1980s to describe a technology that enables a person to interact with a computer-simulated environment, be it based on a real or an imagined place. Virtual reality environments are usually visual experiences, displayed on computer screens or through special stereoscopic displays. Some simulations include additional sensory information such as sound through speakers or headphones. Explorations into virtual reality by artists began in a relatively modest way; in 2002 the duo Langlands and Bell created a virtual reality tour of Osama Bin Laden's hideout in Afghanistan and audiences were invited to navigate the building using a joystick. With the introduction of Second Life on the internet, artists are now installing galleries and staging virtual exhibitions in the alternative virtual world. The Dutch team Art Tower stage exhibitions and sell art in Second Life and Cao Fei, who represented China at the 2007 Venice Biennale reproduced her exhibition in the Chinese pavilion in Second Life.
Industry:Art history
