Olivia Atkinson: Young British Artists

Also referred to as Brit artists and Britart, it s the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988. They were known for their openness to materials and processes, shock tactics and entrepreneurial attitude. Many of the artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Goldsmiths in the late 1980's.

Goldsmiths college of Art played an important role in the development of the movement. It had for some years been fostering new forms of creativity through its courses which abolished the traditional separation of media into painting, sculpture, printmaking etc. In the late 1980's British Art entered what was quickly recognised as a new and excitingly distinctive phase, the era of what became known as the YBA's.

Young British Art can be seen to have a convenient starting point in the exhibition Freeze organised in 1988 by Damien Hirst while he was still a student at Goldsmiths College of Art. Freeze included the work of fellow Goldsmiths students, many of whom also became leading artists associated with the YBAs, such as Sarah Lucas, Angus Fairhurst and Michael Landy.

Michael Craig- Martin

Craig- Martin is a contemporary conceptual artist and painter. He is noted for fostering the Young British Artists, many of whom he taught, and for his conceptual artwork, An Oak Tree. He is Emeritus Professor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths.

In 1973, he exhibited the seminal piece An Oak Tree. The work consists of a glass of water standing on a shelf attached to the gallery wall next to which is a text using a semiotic argument to explain why it is in fact an oak tree.