What is Brit Art

Q. What is Brit Art

A. The 1990s witnessed an unprecedented international interest in contemporary British Art. 'Brit Art' was the broad ranging name given to this exciting and experimental art work.

Q. When did it emerge

A. The Young British Artists (YBAs) and what later became known as Brit Art, emerged in 1988 from a now legendary show called Freeze, staged by Damien Hirst in a warehouse in London's Docklands. This included sixteen of his contemporaries from London's Goldsmith's College, all of whom were born between the mid-60s and mid-70s. New alternative spaces provided the exposure they required. They worked collectively to promote themselves and would taxi gallery owners and collectors to see their work in the galleries of London's East End, such as Chisenhale, Matt's Gallery, The Showroom and Interim Art.

This loose movement of young artists, fired by pop culture and heavily influenced by punk, was catapulted on to the international scene by Charles Saatchi, the advertising guru and art collector who came to dominate the scene and who has cornered the market in Brit Art. The work has been shown in the Saatchi Gallery in north London and elsewhere, notably at the controversial Sensation exhibition in New York in 199 , when Chris Ofili's elephant-dung Virgin Mary caused consternation among some Roman Catholics, including the mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Q. So is Damien Hirst the most famous Brit-artist

A. You can't talk about Brit Art without mentioning Damien Hirst, and he's arguably the most famous artist currently living and working in Britain. Hirst's personal and professional reputation is well-established, having been shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1992 and winning it in 1998. He is best known for his Natural History series, which made use of dead animals preserved in formaldehyde, such as a shark ('The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living'), a sheep ('Away from the Flock'; when during the course of the Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away. . . show at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1994 another artist poured ink into the tank, this piece was renamed 'Black Sheep') and a cow and a calf sliced lengthways ('Mother and Child Divided'). Other high-profile names are 1999 Turner Prize-nominee Tracey Emin and Chris Ofili, as well as the Chapman brothers, Sarah Lucas, Mona Hatoum, Cornelia Parker and Matt Collishaw.

Q. Can I buy any of this on the web

A. This movement lends itself very nicely to the web. Original artworks by well known and as yet undiscovered artists are available at http://www.britart.com and reproductions of the more established names' work from http://www.eyestorm.com

Nicolas Serota, director of the Tate during the 1990s, finally consigned the Young British Artist to history at the 2000 Turner Prize award ceremony: 'They are no longer Young British Artists. They are in their late 30s and early 40s now - individuals doing their own thing - and no longer a movement. The YBAs will be regarded as a phenomenon of the 1990s, not something to continue into the 21st century.'

One movement, known as the Stuckists, critically challenges the work of the Brit Artists. A loose-knit collection of painters, artists and musicians, their manifesto is: 'Artists who don't paint aren't artists.' They state that they are 'opposed to the current pretensions of so-called Brit Art, Performance Art, Installation Art, Video Art, Conceptual Art and Minimal Art and anything claiming to be art which incorporates dead animals or beds - mainly because they are unremarkable and boring'. Stuckism - also known as Remodernism ' got its name from a rant by Tracey Emin to ex-boyfriend Billy Childish (now a leading Stuckist): 'Your paintings are stuck, you are stuck! Stuck! Stuck! Stuck!'

For more information on this group go to www.stuckism.com

For more on Charles Saatchi click here

To ask more questions about Arts & Literature click here

By Simon Smith