"London Calling"

The 75 Faubourg gallery pays tribute to the Young British Artists with the exhibition “London Calling”, presenting five artists from the famous British movement: Dexter Dalwood, Nicky Hoberman, Martin Maloney, Paul Smith, and Hannah Starkey.

The Young British Artists (YBAs) are a group of visual artists, most of whom graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths between 1987 and 1990. This movement started in the late 1980s and has among its members Liam Gillick, Fiona Rae, Steve Park, Ian Davenport, Michael Landy, Gary Hume, and the now famous Damien Hirst.

The “Progress by Degree” exhibition, organized by the artist Angus Fairhurst in 1988, was the precursor to “Freeze”, the exhibition organised by Damien Hirst that same year, which played a major role in the development of YBAs, and among other things allowed them to hold the attention of Charles Saatchi. A great collector of contemporary art and co-founder of Saatchi & Saatchi, Charles Saatchi plays a crucial role in the development of artists of this generation by funding the production of their artworks, by purchasing them, and by becoming their main sponsor.

The YBAs obtain international visibility with the exhibition “Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection”, organized by the prestigious Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1997. If Damien Hirst’s success is proven, we must also mention Jake and Dinos Chapman, whose artworks were exhibited at the Tate, or Tracey Emin, who represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2007.

The movement is marked by a total openness concerning the process and the materials through which art can be expressed. Damien Hirst uses dead animals, others appropriate objects from medical history, or use fresh food to make sculptures.

For James Heartfield, British author of several books on art and design, “the artistic boom of the 90s brought about neglect. The Young British Artists preferred inspired gesture to patient work. They added the public outrage to their palettes, only to find that it was fading very quickly.”

According to Martin Maloney, writing at the time of the exhibition « Sensation” : “substantially maps the contribution of those participants who have added to the diversity of what art is and what it can say … This exhibition engaged and entertained an audience that reflects their own pleasures, anxieties and phobias in it.”