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Young British Artists (YBA)

YOUNG BRITISH ARTISTS

YBAs = provocative. The collective of artists who came up in London in the late 1980s and early ’90s — commonly referred to as the Young British Artists (YBAs) — have made their indelible mark on the art world and continue to produce work that both challenges the viewer and seduces collectors the world over.

Damien Hirst played the role of pioneer in 1988 by organizing “Freeze,” the first of several artist-curated group shows held in abandoned warehouses across London. Most of the artists participating in these early exhibitions — among them Sarah Lucas, Gary Hume, Liam Gillick, Mat Collishaw, Sam Taylor-Wood (now generating more buzz for her directorial work on the film 50 Shades of Grey), and Hirst himself — were graduates of Goldsmiths, University of London. The group’s sophisticated maturity and confidence in presenting Conceptual art with shock appeal, such as Collishaw’s Bullet Hole, a photograph that offers a disturbingly gruesome close-up of a man’s fatal wound, left a lasting impression with Charles Saatchi and other art world stalwarts.

From the beginning, Hirst was fascinated by such epic themes as death and immortality and sought to express them through unconventional, powerful gestures; his early works include A Thousand Years, 1990, in which flies feed on a bloody cow head, breed and die by electrocution within a large glass vitrine, and The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991, his Jaws-inspired suspension of a great white shark in formaldehyde. Following in the footsteps of artists ranging from Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons, Hirst was inspired by mundane objects from daily life, incorporating them into his works, most famously his "Medicine Cabinets" filled with brightly packaged pills.

Notoriously dubbed an “enfant terrible” of the art world, Tracey Emin once printed a photo of Damien Hirst, stuck it on the bottom of an ashtray, and sold it as a piece of art. Represented by 1stDibs’ Lehmann Maupin Gallery since the late 1990s, Emin was a Turner Prize finalist in 1998 for My Bed, an installation showcasing her disheveled bed covered in underwear, used condoms and other debris. Overt sexuality and the emotional dynamics of love and sex have persisted as themes throughout her career, seen across the neon artworks for which she is most famous.

YBAs have never shied from using non-traditional materials or tackling controversial subject matter. Chris Ofili, a racially charged painter who re-appropriates biblical and mythological iconography, found the spotlight in 1999 when then-New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani publicly criticized the artist’s monumental depiction of an eroticized black Madonna, entitled The Holy Virgin Mary, baring a breast composed of elephant dung and surrounded by images of female genitalia. Marc Quinn reimagined the self-portrait in 1991 by casting a frozen sculpture of his head with his own blood and maintaining it in a refrigerated vitrine as if on life-support. More recently, Quinn has elicited strong reactions from a series of studies and sculptures of supermodel Kate Moss in a contorted, god-like pose.

Below, we invite you to browse our collection of original works by Hirst, Emin, Quinn, Collishaw and other YBAs — a group that knew not only how to provoke and self-promote but to create works that continue to resonate today.

Find original Young British Artists sculptures, photography, prints and other art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Young British Artists (YBA)
Wu Zetian by Damien Hirst, The Empresses, Red Butterflies kaleidoscope effect
Wu Zetian by Damien Hirst, The Empresses, Red Butterflies kaleidoscope effect

Damien HirstWu Zetian by Damien Hirst, The Empresses, Red Butterflies kaleidoscope effect, 2022

$7,281Sale Price|30% Off

Wu Zetian by Damien Hirst, The Empresses, Red Butterflies kaleidoscope effect

By Damien Hirst

Located in Zug, CH

“The Empresses” is a series of five glorious artworks named after influential female rulers. They are composed of butterfly wings placed on a flaming red background which create a ka...

Category

2010s Young British Artists (YBA)

Materials

Glitter, Giclée

Maggie
Maggie

Marcus HarveyMaggie, 2016

$2,057

Maggie

By Marcus Harvey

Located in London, GB

Silkscreen, 2016, on Somerset wove, signed and numbered from the edition of 25, published by Shapero Modern, London, printed by K2 Screens, London, imag...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Young British Artists (YBA)

Materials

Screen

These Feelings Were True -Emin, Contemporary, YBAs, Lithograph, Blue, Portrait
These Feelings Were True -Emin, Contemporary, YBAs, Lithograph, Blue, Portrait

Tracey EminThese Feelings Were True -Emin, Contemporary, YBAs, Lithograph, Blue, Portrait, 2020

$130,689Sale Price|30% Off

These Feelings Were True -Emin, Contemporary, YBAs, Lithograph, Blue, Portrait

By Tracey Emin

Located in Zug, CH

These Feelings Were True - Tracey Emin, Contemporary, Young British Artiststs, Lithograph, Blue, Portrait, Limited Edition 2 colour lithographs on Somerset Velvet Warm White 400gsm (Poprtfolio of 8) Edition 25 of 50, the full Set is offered in matching edition numbers Signed, numbered, and dated by the artist In mint condition, as acquired from the publisher with the original cardboard portfolio Published by Counter Editions Please note: images are for illustrative purposes only, the edition number offered is 25 of 50 Tracey Emin's new set of 8 lithographs depicting herself are incredibly personal auto portraits and revelatory. Viewed almost as an intimate tiny sketchbook of herself, a visual diary. These editions are great examples of Emin's radical painting style which has been influenced by Expressionism. These works showcase universal feelings, raw and bittersweet emotions, which are Emin’s constant subject surrounded around the idea of love, loss, intimacy, and longing. In making herself the subject of her work, and concentrating intensely on figuration, Emin creates bridges with the rich art-historical tradition of the female figure and female nudes. She shows strong emotive force in these pictures, as seen for example in the work of male painters Munch and Schiele, which Emin admires and studied throughout her artistic oeuvre. Emin has said that “when I saw that these portraits did not look like me, I then realized I was actually drawing how I felt inside my head. An expression of myself in different moments, and this idea doing a few of them would be very honest and will be really free… the idea is how I am feeling.” When referencing her previous portraiture practice, Emin said “I would put my face in the work and then I would black it out, it is too much for me to have me in the work, and now it is so weird, I am thinking that it is time for me to start having an entrance to my work. Because I have a good reason to do it. I should be celebrating me as a person and things that make me, me.” TRACEY EMIN A prominent member of the Young British Artists (YBAs), Tracey Emin´s production encompasses different mediums including film, painting, neon, embroidery, drawing, writing, installation and sculpture. Her work is intensely personal, revealing intimate details of her life with honesty and humour. "There should be something revelatory about art. It should be totally creative and open doors for new thoughts and experiences."—Tracey Emin Tracey Emin uses all aspects of her life in her art, turning her autobiography into broader statements about sex, love, death, freedom, and everyday life. This audacious and confessional approach earned her a nomination for the Turner Prize in 1999. The artist received notable acclaim, among others, for her installation My Bed, featuring her unmade bed surrounded...

Category

2010s Young British Artists (YBA)

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled 08
Untitled 08

Marc QuinnUntitled 08, 2013

$3,920Sale Price|20% Off

Untitled 08

By Marc Quinn

Located in Boston, MA

Artist: Quinn, Marc Title: Untitled 08 Series: Eye of History Date: 2013 Medium: Colour Etching on 350gsm paper Unframed Dimensions: 35.9375" x 35.5625" Framed Dimensions: 4...

Category

2010s Young British Artists (YBA)

Materials

Etching

Butterfly Heart (small) - Contemporary art, 21st Century, YBAs, Colorful, Giclée
Butterfly Heart (small) - Contemporary art, 21st Century, YBAs, Colorful, Giclée

Damien HirstButterfly Heart (small) - Contemporary art, 21st Century, YBAs, Colorful, Giclée, 2020

Price Upon Request

Butterfly Heart (small) - Contemporary art, 21st Century, YBAs, Colorful, Giclée

By Damien Hirst

Located in Zug, CH

Butterfly Heart (small) - Damien Hirst, Contemporary Art, 21st Century, YBAs, Colorful, Giclée Print, Brush Stokes, Paint, Glossy, Limited Edition Laminated Giclée print on aluminium composite panel Edition 503 of 3510 Signed and numbered on label on the verso In mint condition, as acquired from the publisher and in the original packaging With Certificate of Authenticity PLEASE NOTE: Edition numbers could vary from the one shown in the images. Butterfly Heart is the latest edition by the British artist, Damien Hirst. This edition consists of digitally made photographed real butterfly wings placed onto a heart-shaped aluminum panel. This edition includes Hirst´s best-known motifs; the butterflies, and the rainbow color alignment on the heart-shaped print. Shortly after graduating from Goldsmiths, in 1989, Hirst began working on a series of paintings after seeing flies get stuck on primed canvases in his Brixton studio. Taking this idea, but wanting to create something beautiful, Hirst started fixing the bodies of dead butterflies...

Category

2010s Young British Artists (YBA)

Materials

Giclée

Young British Artists (yba) art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Young British Artists (YBA) available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add art created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of red, blue, purple, green and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Gary Hume, and Marc Quinn. Frequently made by artists working with Digital Print, and Inkjet Print and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Young British Artists (YBA), so small editions measuring 3.6 inches across are also available. Prices for art made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $750 and tops out at $214,080, while the average work sells for $8,194.

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