Saatchi, for example, a well-known media tycoon, is responsible for the introduction and promotion of
BritArt, with artists such as Hirst, Sarah Lucas, and many others (see Adams, Jardine, Maloney, Rosenthal, Stone).
That artist's home city of Nottingham won but Northern Print, which came second, plans to use its PS200 runner-up prize money to mount an exhibition of work by Collishaw, a founder of the
Britart movement, with Damien Hirst, Sam Taylor-Wood, Tracey Emin and others.
I have no qualms with experimenting, in fact I have actively encouraged innovation throughout my professional career, but let us be unequivocal about this, regurgitating
BritArt is hardly cutting edge any longer.
BritArt star Tracey slipped into the building last week to oversee the neon installation, which one insider said was more suited to a nightclub.
The
Britart celebrity, 47, who was homeless twice in her life aged 17 and 23, submitted the image to a Bangor art gallery which was raising money for homeless charities.
And Audi teamed up with
Britart godfather Damien Hirst earlier this year on a paint-splattered A1 that raised pounds 350,000 at Elton John's White Tie and Tiara charity ball.
What the media dubbed New Labour's 'Cool Britannia' brand of nationhood included an endorsement of
Britart, the deliberately shocking new work of a group of young artists, including Harvey, (25) whose rapid success shifted them, as Rosemary Betterton has put it, from 'alternative exhibition spaces to major public and institutional acclaim' within less than a decade from their graduation.
But the maverick cueman, who boasts hard-partying Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood and
Britart's celebrated bad boy Damien Hirst as close personal friends, knows making plans for good times does not guarantee they will arrive.
On September 15, 2008, Sotheby's started a two-day auction of works by
Britart star Damien Hirst that would generate almost $200 million -- and come to be seen as the end of an era.Aa
Its founder Charles Saatchi is closely associated with the
Britart movement which encompassed artists like Damien Hirst.
Persuasive, too--except perhaps to some of today's Hollywood superstars and '
Britart' zillionaires, not to mention swarms of under-employed, underfunded musicians.
Don't get me wrong: However stupid the name, there were a lot of good things to come out of
Britart. But because of its sheer scale and its maddening symbiosis with the media, it has become a phantom limb of my generation of British artists.