The End of the Young British Artists Movement

The trick with naming a movement the “Young British Artists” is that eventually that “Young” is going to age. The Guardian‘s Vanessa Thorpe is perhaps the first to issue an official statement that the heady days of the YBA, which made up of artists like Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, and Sam Taylor-Wood, are now over (well, the first along with Gregor Muir‘s recent book, Lucky Kunst: The Rise and Fall of Young British Art). Thorpe reports that the UK’s current art scene “appears to have turned its back on the ironic jokes and personal confessions” and instead “focusing on objects in the world around them.”