Young British Artists
The Young British Artists, or YBAs, were a loose group of artists, many from Goldsmiths College in London, who came to prominence from 1988 with shock tactics, entrepreneurial self-promotion and the support of the collector Charles Saatchi; Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin are the best known.
In the summer of 1988 Damien Hirst, then a student at Goldsmiths, organised an exhibition called Freeze in an empty Port of London Authority building in Docklands, with fellow students including Sarah Lucas, Gary Hume, Mat Collishaw, Angela Bulloch and Fiona Rae. Their tutor Michael Craig-Martin helped bring dealers and curators to see it. Over the next few years the same circle put on more warehouse shows, Modern Medicine and Gambler among them in 1990, and Charles Saatchi began buying, notably Hirst's shark, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, in 1991.
The name came from Young British Artists, a series of exhibitions at the Saatchi Gallery from 1992. Sensation, Saatchi's collection shown at the Royal Academy in 1997, was a national scandal, over Marcus Harvey's portrait of Myra Hindley, the Chapman brothers' mannequins and Marc Quinn's Self, a cast of his head in his own frozen blood. Tracey Emin's tent, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, was in it, and her My Bed was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1999. Rachel Whiteread, who cast the inside of a London terraced house in concrete, won the prize in 1993, Hirst in 1995, Gillian Wearing in 1997 and Chris Ofili in 1998.
At a glance
- When
- 1988 to the early 2000s
- Where
- London
- Leading artists
- Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, Gary Hume
Characteristics of the YBAs
- Shock
- Sex, the body, mortality and the taboo, presented head on.
- Any material
- Formaldehyde, elephant dung, blood, neon, beds and cigarettes.
- Enterprise
- Artist-run warehouse shows and direct dealings with collectors and the press.
- Autobiography
- Emin's own life as her subject, confessional and raw.
- Conceptual roots
- Taught by conceptual artists at Goldsmiths, with the idea often first.
YBA artists
Every artist below has a page on this site, with a short biography and what a valuation of their work turns on.
The YBAs
- Damien HirstMade in series and in volume, which is exactly why the edition and its paperwork decide what a Hirst is worth.
- Tracey EminThe neons are the works most often owned and most often misunderstood, because a different colour is a different work.
- Sarah LucasMakes sculpture from furniture, fruit, tights and cigarettes, with a bawdy, deadpan humour about sex and Englishness.
- Gary HumeGloss household paint on aluminium, beginning with a series of hospital doors.
- Marc QuinnCast his own head in nine pints of his own frozen blood, and put Alison Lapper on the fourth plinth.
- Jake and Dinos ChapmanYoung British Artists who reworked Goya, mutilated mannequins, and bought Hitler's watercolours to paint over.
- Rachel WhitereadCasts the space inside and underneath things — a room, a bath, a house, a staircase.
- Chris OfiliTurner Prize winner whose glittering, resin-layered paintings stood on lumps of elephant dung.
- Jenny SavillePaints the body at enormous scale, in paint as heavy and physical as the flesh it describes.
Famous YBA works
- The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone LivingDamien Hirst, 1991
- SelfMarc Quinn, 1991
- HouseRachel Whiteread, 1993
- Au NaturelSarah Lucas, 1994
- My BedTracey Emin, 1998
- No Woman, No CryChris Ofili, 1998, Tate, London
What a valuation turns on
YBA work is mostly well documented, because most of it was sold through a small number of London galleries, and the gallery invoice and certificate are the starting point for any sale. The difference that matters most is between unique works and editions: Hirst's and Emin's prints, multiples and limited editions run to many thousands of sheets and objects, and the questions are the usual ones of edition, signature, condition and whether the work is what its certificate says.
Hirst's spot and spin paintings show why paperwork matters: many were made by studio assistants, as the artist has always said, so authenticity rests on the studio's records rather than on the hand. Fragile materials are the other issue for this generation: formaldehyde, food, flowers and organic matter change over time, and a work's condition and conservation history need establishing before it is sold.
Common questions
Who were the Young British Artists?
A loose group of artists who emerged in London from 1988, many of them from Goldsmiths College: Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, Gary Hume, Marc Quinn, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Rachel Whiteread, Chris Ofili, Gillian Wearing, Mat Collishaw and Jenny Saville among them.
What does YBA stand for?
Young British Artists, after a series of exhibitions of that name at the Saatchi Gallery from 1992. The abbreviation was in wide use by the mid-1990s.
What was Freeze?
The student exhibition Damien Hirst organised in an empty Port of London Authority building in Docklands in 1988, with fellow Goldsmiths students. It is usually taken as the starting point of the YBAs.
What was the Sensation exhibition?
The 1997 exhibition at the Royal Academy in London of Charles Saatchi's collection of young British art. It drew large crowds and great controversy, and it toured to Berlin and New York.
How do I sell a Hirst or Emin print?
Send photographs of the front, the signature and edition number, the back, and the certificate or invoice for a free, confidential valuation. We check the edition and condition, and compare a confidential private sale with auction.
