Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection
London: Royal Academy of Arts, Sept. 17 - Dec. 28, 1997
New York: Brooklyn Museum of Art, Oct. 2, 1999 - Jan. 9, 2000
The Sensation shows in London and New York were sources of intense controversy or noisy hype, depending on your point of view, but they certainly succeeded in sparking some of the most serious debates on the role of art in society in recent years.
In London, the lightning rod for controversy was Marcus Harvey's portrait of notorious child murderer Myra Hindley, done Chuck Close-style using hundreds of children's handprints. This piece was physically attacked at least twice: once it was pelted with eggs and on another occasion it had ink thrown at it. (Harvey's approach to conservation is worth noting: he cleaned the stains off the painting with a scouring pad.)
When the show came to New York, public fury centered around Chris Ofili's painting The Holy Virgin Mary, which portrays an African Madonna and is accessorized by a clump of elephant dung. A good summary of the way the controversy raged in the American press can be found here.
"Britart" stars whose work appeared in the show included Jenny Saville, Damien Hirst, Gillian Wearing, Rachel Whiteread and Tracey Emin.
In retrospect, it's undoubtedly significant that Charles Saatchi made his fortune in advertising. Sensation was a huge success which brought in millions of dollars in revenue, and generated many more millions worth of free publicity for Saatchi and his artists, not to mention the many politicians, pundits and critics who waded into the debate on "decency" vs. free speech.
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Artists whose work appeared in Sensation |
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 Darren Almond Simon Callery Adam Chodzko Peter Davies Paul Finnegan Marcus Harvey Gary Hume Langlands & Bell Jason Martin Chris Ofili Simon Patterson Fiona Rae Yinka Shonibare Gavin Turk Rachel Whiteread |
Richard Billingham Dinos Chapman Mat Collishaw Tracey Emin Mark Francis Mona Hatoum Michael Landy Sarah Lucas Alain Miller Jonathan Parsons Hadrian Pigott James Reilly Jane Simpson Mark Wallinger Glenn Brown |
Jake
Chapman Keith Coventry Cerith Wyn Evans Alex Hartley Damien Hirst Abigail Lane Martin Maloney Ron Mueck Richard Patterson Marc Quinn Jenny Saville Sam Taylor-Wood Gillian Wearing |
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Information provided by: http://www.artcyclopedia.com |