Freeze (exhibition)

Freeze was the title of a retrospectively highly acclaimed art exhibition that took place in London's Docklands in 1988 . It was organized by Damien Hirst along with other students from Goldsmiths College . The exhibition is considered to be the birth of the Young British Artists .

The exhibition

Freeze is the title of an art exhibition that took place in an abandoned building in London Docklands in 1988. It was curated by then Goldsmiths College student Damien Hirst. Works by him and 15 of his fellow students were exhibited. The name Freeze comes from the art historian Ian Jeffrey, who in an essay on Freeze called the Bullet Hole exhibited there a Freeze Frame . Due to the positive response from the top-class visitors, the exhibition gained an ever greater reputation in retrospect. Freeze is considered to be the birth of the Young British Artists .

The Young British Artists were born

The Young British Artists are a diverse group of young British artists. Your work is characterized by the use of a wide variety of materials and work processes. With their art they often intended to have a shocking effect on the viewer.

The designation as a group is problematic because they never saw themselves as such.

The question now is whether a group that never existed as such can have an hour of birth and, if so, whether Freeze represents it.

It can be said that freeze was without a doubt the beginning of a change that was evident in the numerous “warehouse shows” of the 1990s. Young artists took the initiative themselves and thus received the attention of important gallery owners, collectors and patrons.

Participating artists

Damien Hirst

Steven Adamson Angela Bullock Mat Collishaw : "Bullet Hole" (1988) Ian Davenport Angus Fairhurst : "Gray Unit" (1988) Anya Gallaccio : "Waterloo" (1988) Damien Hirst : "Boxes" (1988), "Row" (1988) and "Edge" (1988) Gary Hume : "Door Paintings I-III" (1988)

Michael Landy Abigail Lane Sarah Lucas Lala Meredith-Vula Richard Patterson Simon Patterson Stephen Park Fiona Rae

See also

• Sensation (1997)
• Jon Thompson
• Charles Saatchi
• Michael Craig-Martin

Web links

• Exposure Magazine article on the YBAs
• Guardian News Paper article (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ulrich Blanché: Consumption Art: Culture and Commerce at Banksy and Damien Hirst . transcript, Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 978-3-8376-2139-6 , p. 58 .
2. ↑ Elizabeth Fullerton: How Britain's shocking art movement got its start , BBC , April 25, 2016, accessed September 16, 2016