Contemporary British Art: An Introduction

Never, according to an article by the art critic Louisa Buck in ES (Evening Standard) magazine last year, has the following quotation from US Museum Director Thomas Hoving, seemed more apt: "Art is sexy! Art is money-sexy! Art is money-sexy-social-climbing-fantastic!" This book will provide an introduction to British art, in all its money-sexy glory, from the yBas to the present. Grant Pooke's study will begin by considering the terms 'contemporary' and 'British art' as a way of providing a framework for the discussion that follows. It will then go on to examine the institutional and cultural background to the flourishing of British art from the late 1980s onwards, and then to explore key themes in British art practice: autobiographical art, the abject, mutability and death, spectacle, ontology and spectacle, through a discussion of the work of key artists and art movements, including Michael Landy, Lucian Freud, Sam Taylor-Wood, Damien Hirst, Rachel Whiteread and Anthony Gormley. A range of art forms, from painting and sculpture to video and installation art will be addressed.Pooke, Grant is the author of 'Contemporary British Art: An Introduction', published 2010 under ISBN 9780415389730 and ISBN 0415389739.