Product Description

This eloquent, lacerating book has become the authoritative account of the new British art of the 1990s, its legacy in the 21st century, and what it tells us about the fate of high art as a whole in contemporary society. Now fully updated and with a new concluding chapter, "High Art Lite" provides a sustained analysis of the so-called "young British artists", exploring the reasons for its popularity and the much-publicised work of its leading exponents: Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Marcus Harvey and Sarah Lucas, among others.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24812 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
"I cannot help but endorse his analysis of the high art lite tendency ... its abject willingness to be fucked up by the 1990s cult of celebrity; fucked over by the 1990s boom in consumerism; fucked sideways by its adoption of the styles and modes of popular culture; and fucked to buggery by its co-option by the new Labourite idiotology." -- Will Self, New Statesman

From the Author
Beyond the Hype about 'Young British Art'
This is the first serious analysis of the much-publicised work of the so-called 'young British artists'--Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Marcus Harvey and Sarah Lucas, among others. It shows how their work became successful, how it has transformed the previously parochial British art scene, as well as highlighting the limits and problems of this art. Has this art achieved its success at the price of dumbing-down and cynical playing upon the sensitive spots of the mass media? How seriously does it take the new audience that it has so successfully courted? Is there anything British about this new art? What does this lite art tell us about the fate of high art as a whole in contemporary society? I have tried to examine these and other questions in as clear a manner as possible.

About the Author
Julian Stallabrass is a writer and art critic. He lectures in art history as the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. He is author of Gargantua: Manufactured Mass Culture (Verso) and the co-editor of Occupational Hazard: Critical Writing on Recent British Art.