The Young British Artists (YBAs) stormed on to the contemporary art scene in 1988 with their attention-grabbing, ironic art. They exploded art-world conventions with brazen disdain. Dismissed as trivial gimmickry and praised for its witty energy, their art made a mark both on the art scene and on public consciousness that continues to reverberate today. Now, almost three decades after they emerged, Artrage! tells the story of the YBAs with the benefit of perspective, chronicling the group's rise to prominence from the landmark show 'Freeze' curated by Damien Hirst, through the heyday of the 1990s and the notorious 'Sensation' exhibition, to the Momart fire of 2004 that seemed to symbolize the group's fading from centre stage. The book ends with an update on the artists' careers and fortunes in the last decade. Drawing on interviews with all the key BritArt players and extensive archival research, Elizabeth Fullerton examines the individual characters, their relationships to one another, crucial events and seminal artworks, considering, too, the political, economic and artistic context of those years. Plentiful quotations bring out the distinctive personalities and provide fresh insights into the people and the period. Among the artists discussed are Damien Hirst, Rachel Whiteread, Tracey Emin, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Sarah Lucas and Gary Hume.

The first definitive history of the Young British Artists movement, featuring extensive interviews with its key players

About the Author
Elizabeth Fullerton is an art writer and critic and has been published in numerous international publications, including The Guardian, the New YorkTimes and The Financial Times. A regular contributor to art magazines Art in America, ARTnews, Sculpture, Elephant, Art Quarterly and Studio International, she has also contributed to several books, most recently African Artists (2021) and Great Women Artists (2019, both Phaidon) and is a regular guest host on the podcast Art Fictions. Prior to specialising in art writing, Elizabeth was a foreign correspondent for Reuters, with postings in Mexico and Vienna

Reviews
'Well-illustrated, studiously researched' - Daily Telegraph
'Back in the early 1990s, the British art world changed forever thanks to a band of bright young things who weren't afraid of controversy ...'Artrage!' details that blistering scene and looks at its place today' - It's Nice That
'An excellent primer on the rise and fall, successes and failures of a moment in British art. It catches the brio of the people involved, charts the connections that they forged; the friendships, the fall-outs, the partner swapping ... and celebrates the art they created' - The Herald



Book Information
ISBN 9780500239445
Author Elizabeth Fullerton
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint Thames & Hudson Ltd
Publisher Thames & Hudson Ltd
Weight(grams) 1070g