British Art of the long 1980s : Diverse practices, exhibitions and infrastructures
- Submitting institution
-
Coventry University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 19241574
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
-
-
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Academic
- ISBN
- 9781350191549
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- November
- Year of publication
- 2020
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The sculptural history of the long 1980s has been dominated by New British Sculpture and Young British Artists. This 368-page monograph published by Bloomsbury Visual Arts contains a substantial introduction that offers new understanding of British sculptural and object-based practices of the 1980s, and the developing infrastructures that supported it. It argues for a more expansive history of British sculpture and its supporting infrastructures.
The book details semi-structured interviews with 23 artists, curators, dealers and facilitators working at the time. These demonstrate the interconnected networks, diversity of ideas and practices, energy, imagination and determination that transformed British art from being marginal to internationally celebrated. The intention was to provide a new way of framing the education, work, careers, studios, infrastructures and exhibitions of the artists and facilitators of the era. As reviewer Prof Joy Sleeman noted: ‘Rather than explode the myths of New British Sculpture or the YBA [the study] reveals underlying connections in the networks of the time and repositions sculpture and object-based practices allowing a more complexly connected history to be revealed.’
The inclusion of people who enabled artists in diverse ways, ran studio complexes, put on exhibitions, fought for contemporary art to be taken seriously, are considered alongside the artists in a way that has not previously been catalogued or discussed. Much of the sculptural material of the 1980s, has not been documented nor archived, apart from the official narrative. Racz seeks to complicate and challenge this narrative by drawing in under-represented voices and challenging the institutional position. As this generation dies, this knowledge would otherwise be lost.
The research takes forward understanding of this crucial decade that moved Britain from being an artistic backwater, with no money or infrastructure, to being internationally celebrated, with a vibrant art scene and viable market.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -