Lucky Kunst
The Rise and Fall of Young British Art
Published on 16. February 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-1-84513-766-3 (ISBN)
Description
These days artists like Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin are major celebrities. But Gregor Muir knew them at the start; his unique memoir chronicles the birth of Young British Art. Muir, YBA' s ' embedded journalist' , happened to be in Shoreditch and Hoxton before Jay Jopling arrived with his White Cube Gallery, when this was still a semi-derelict landscape of grotty pubs and squats. There he witnessed, amid a whirl of drunkenness, scrapes and riotous hedonism, the coming-together of a remarkable array of young artists - Hirst, the Chapman brothers, Rachel Whiteread, Sam Taylor-Wood, Angus Fairhurst - who went on to produce a fresh, irreverent, often notorious form of art - Hirst' s shark, Sarah Lucas' s two fried eggs and a kebab. By the time of the seminal Sensation show at the Royal Academy YBA had changed the art world for ever.
Reviews / Votes
'A fantastic historical document...his book describes those defining moments so well.' 'This lucid, lurid, indiscreet memoir is an unrivalled record of 1990s Cool Britannia, when British Art ruled the world' (Financial Times Books of the Year) 'This book will get your juices flowing...offers a comprehensive and entertaining overview of an uber cool generation.' 'A fantastic historical document...his book describes those defining moments so well.'' This lucid, lurid, indiscreet memoir is an unrivalled record of 1990s Cool Britannia, when British Art ruled the world' (Financial Times Books of the Year)
' Sharply atmospheric... a picaresque journey, a fly-in-the-vitrine' s-eye view of the period'
' All the stars of the YBA movement appear in this former journalists memoir, swearing and yelling as they go'
'An absorbing and intelligent account of the times, this is a must-read for anyone interested in contemporary art or the 1990s Brit Scene'
' This book will get your juices flowing... offers a comprehensive and entertaining overview of an uber cool generation.'
More details
Edition
New Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Quarto Publishing PLC
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 129 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-84513-766-3 (9781845137663)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
01/2010
1st Edition
Aurum
€8.49
Available for download
Person
Gregor Muir is the Executive Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Previously, he has been director of Hauser & Wirth (London), the contemporary art gallery, and Kramlich Curator of Contemporary Art at the Tate where he curated several exhibitions and museum displays, and was responsible for numerous acquisitions of contemporary art for Tate Collections. Muir curated YBA group shows such as 'Lucky Kunst' and 'Liar'. He has been a critic and writer for various cutting-edge publications such as Dazed & Confused, Parkett and Frieze magazine.