Goldsmiths College, Millard Building, in Camberwell, where many of the YBAs met on the Fine Art BA in the late 1980s.

The Young British Artists, or YBAs^[1] — also referred to as Brit artists and Britart — is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988. Many of the artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Goldsmiths, in the late 1980s.

The scene began around a series of artist-led exhibitions held in warehouses and factories, beginning in 1988 with the Damien Hirst-led Freeze and, in 1990, East Country Yard Show and Modern Medicine. The acronym term "YBA" (or "yBa") was not coined until 1996 (in Art Monthly magazine). It has become a historic term, as most of the YBAs were born in the mid-1960s. They are noted for "shock tactics", use of throwaway materials, wild-living, and an attitude "both oppositional and entrepreneurial."^[2] They achieved considerable media coverage and dominated British art during the 1990s—international survey shows in the mid-1990s included Brilliant! and Sensation.

Many of the artists were initially supported and collected by Charles Saatchi. Leading artists of the group include Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. Key works include Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a shark preserved in formaldehyde in a vitrine, and Enim's My Bed, a dishevelled double bed surrounded by detritus.

Origin[link]

Goldsmiths[link]

The core of the later-to-be YBAs, graduated from the Goldsmiths BA Fine Art degree course in the classes of 1987-90. Liam Gillick, Fiona Rae, Steve Park and Sarah Lucas, were graduates in the class of 1987. Ian Davenport, Michael Landy, Gary Hume, Anya Gallaccio, Henry Bond and Angela Bulloch, were graduates in the class of 1988; Damien Hirst, Angus Fairhurst, Mat Collishaw, Simon Patterson, and Abigail Lane, were graduates from the class of 1989; whilst Gillian Wearing, and Sam Taylor-Wood, were graduates from the class of 1990. During the years 1987-1990, the teaching staff on the Goldsmiths BA Fine Art included Jon Thompson, Richard Wentworth, Michael Craig-Martin, Ian Jeffrey, Helen Chadwick, Mark Wallinger, Judith Cowan and Glen Baxter.

Freeze[link]

A group of sixteen Goldsmiths students took part in a group exhibition of art, called Freeze, of which Damien Hirst became the main organiser; he was still in the second year of a BA in Fine Art.

Commercial galleries had shown a lack of interest in the project, and it was held in a cheap alternative space, a London Docklands admin block (usually referred to as a warehouse). The event resonated with the 'Acid House' warehouse rave scene prevalent at the time, but did not achieve any major press exposure. One of its effects was to set an example of artist-as-curator—in the mid 1990s artist-run exhibition spaces and galleries became a feature of the London arts scene.

Other shows[link]

In liaison with Hirst, Carl Freedman (who had been friends with him in Leeds before Hirst moved to London and was helping to make Hirst's vitrines) and Billee Sellman then curated two influential "warehouse" shows in 1990, Modern Medicine and Gambler, in a Bermondsey former factory they designated Building One. To stage Modern Medicine they raised £1,000 sponsorships from artworld figures including Charles Saatchi. Freedman has spoken openly about the self-fulfilling prophecy these sponsors helped to create, and also commented that not many people attended these early shows, including Freeze. In 1990, Henry Bond and Sarah Lucas organized the East Country Yard Show in a disused warehouse in London Docklands which was installed over four floors and 16,000m² of exhibition space. Writing in The Independent, art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon said:

"Goldsmiths graduates are unembarrassed about promoting themselves and their work: some of the most striking exhibitions in London over the past few months—"The East Country Yard Show", or "Gambler", both staged in docklands—have been independently organized and funded by Goldsmiths graduates as showcases for their work. This has given them a reputation for pushiness, yet it should also be said that in terms of ambition, attention to display and sheer bravado there has been little to match such shows in the country's established contemporary art institutions. They were far superior, for instance, to any of the contemporary art shows that have been staged by the Liverpool Tate in its own multi-million-pound dockland site."^[3]

Established alternative spaces such as City Racing at the Oval in London and Milch gave many artists their first exposure. There was much embryonic activity in the Hoxton/Shoreditch area of East London focused on Joshua Compston's gallery. In 1991, the Serpentine Gallery presented a survey of this group of artists with the exhibition Broken English. In 1992, Charles Saatchi staged a series of exhibitions of Young British Art, the first show included works by Sarah Lucas, Rachel Whiteread and Damien Hirst.

A second wave of Young British Artists appeared in 1992-1993 through exhibitions such as 'New Contemporaries', 'New British Summertime' and 'Minky Manky' (curated by Carl Freedman). This included Douglas Gordon, Christine Borland, Fiona Banner, Tracey Emin, Tacita Dean, Georgina Starr and Jane and Louise Wilson. One exhibition which included several of the YBA artists was the 1995 quin-annual British Art Show.

Revitalization of British art scene[link]

The Young British Artists revitalised (and in some cases spawned) a whole new generation of contemporary commercial galleries such as Karsten Schubert, Sadie Coles, Victoria Miro, Maureen Paley's Interim Art, and Jay Jopling's White Cube. The spread of interest improved the market for contemporary British art magazines through increased advertising and circulation. Frieze launched in 1991 embraced the YBAs from the start while established publications such as Art Monthly, Art Review, Modern Painters and Contemporary Art were all re-launched with more focus on emerging British artists.

Charles Saatchi's involvement[link]

One of the visitors to Freeze was Charles Saatchi, a major contemporary art collector and co-founder of Saatchi and Saatchi, the London advertising agency. Saatchi then visited Gambler in a green Rolls Royce and, according to Freedman, stood open-mouthed with astonishment in front of (and then bought) Hirst's first major "animal" installation, A Thousand Years, consisting of a large glass case containing maggots and flies feeding off a rotting cow's head. (The installation was later a notable feature of the Sensation exhibition.)

Saatchi became not only Hirst's main collector, but also the main sponsor for other YBAs–a fact openly acknowledged by Gavin Turk. The contemporary art market in London had dramatically collapsed in mid-1990 due to a major economic recession, and many commercial contemporary galleries had gone out of business. Saatchi had until this time collected mostly American and German contemporary art, some by young artists, but most by already established ones.

His collection was publicly exhibited in a series of shows in a large converted factory building in St John's Wood, north London. Previous Saatchi Gallery shows had included such major figures as Warhol, Guston, Alex Katz, Serra, Kiefer, Polke, Richter and many more. In the early-1990s, Saatchi altered his focus to emerging British art.

Saatchi put on a series of shows called "Young British Artists" starting in 1992, when a noted exhibit was Damien Hirst's "shark" (The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living), which became the iconic work of British art in the 1990s,^[4] and the symbol of Britart worldwide.^[5] In addition to (and as a direct result of) Saatchi's patronage, the Young British Artists benefited from intense media coverage. This was augmented by controversy surrounding the annual Turner Prize, (one of Britain's few major awards for contemporary artists), which had several of the artists as nominees or winners. Channel 4 had become a sponsor of the competition, leading to television profiles of the artists in prime-time slots.

Becoming the establishment[link]

The consolidation of the artists' status began in 1995 with a large-scale group exhibition Brilliant! held at the Walker Art Center a respected art museum in Minneapolis, USA. The term "yBa" was coined by Simon Ford in a feature "Myth Making" in March 1996 in Art Monthly magazine.^[6]

Art dealer Jay Jopling began to represent YBAs Jake & Dinos Chapman, Tracey Emin, Marcus Harvey, Damien Hirst, Gary Hume, Marc Quinn and Sam Taylor-Wood, whom he married in 1998.

In 1997, the Royal Academy, staged an exhibition of the private art collection of Charles Saatchi titled Sensation, which included many works by YBA artists.

The exhibition was actually a showing of Charles Saatchi's private collection of their work, and he owned the major pieces. The liaison was effected by the Academy's Norman Rosenthal, even though there was strong opposition from some of the Academicians, three of whom resigned. Controversy engendered in the media about the show, particularly over Marcus Harvey's work Myra, served to reinforce the YBAs' importance.^{[citation needed]} When the show toured to New York there was further controversy caused by the inclusion of Chris Ofili's work.^{[citation needed]}

The YBAs since 1997[link]

In 1997, Gillian Wearing won the annual Turner Prize. In 1998, Chris Ofili won the annual Turner Prize.

In 1999, Tracey Emin was nominated for the Turner Prize. Her main exhibit, My Bed, consisting literally of her dishevelled, stained bed, surrounded by detritus including condoms, slippers and soiled underwear, created an immediate and lasting media impact and further heightened her prominence. The emergence at the same time of an anti-YBA group, The Stuckists, co-founded by her ex boyfriend, Billy Childish, gave another angle to media coverage.

In 2003, YBAs Jake and Dinos Chapman and Anya Gallaccio were nominated for the annual Turner Prize.

On 24 May 2004, a fire in a storage warehouse destroyed some important works from the Saatchi collection, including the Chapman Brothers' Hell and Tracey Emin's "tent", Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995.

In 2008, YBA Angus Fairhurst committed suicide.

In the 2011 Birthday Honours List, Sam Taylor-Wood and Gillian Wearing were appointed Order of the British Empire by the UK constitutional monarch Elizabeth II.

Elected Royal Academicians[link]

Several of the YBAs have been elected as lifetime members of the Royal Academy of Arts in London (founded by George III in 1768); hence they are "Royal Academicians," and may use the letters "RA" after their name to indicate this.

• Gary Hume elected 24 May, 2001
• Fiona Rae elected 28 May 2002
• Tracey Emin elected 27 March, 2007
• Jenny Saville elected July, 2007
• Gillian Wearing elected 11 December 2007
• Michael Landy elected May 29, 2008
• Tacita Dean elected 9 December, 2008^[7]

Doctorates[link]

In 2004, Gillian Wearing received an Honorary Doctorate from the University for the Creative Arts; in 2007, Henry Bond received a Doctorate from University of Gloucestershire; in 2007, Tracey Emin received Honorary Doctorates from the Royal College of Art and London Metropolitan University; in 2010, Fiona Banner received an Honorary Doctorate from Kingston University.

Personal lives[link]

Writing in his book Lucky Kunst: The Rise and Fall of Young British Art, the commentator Gregor Muir said:

The second part of 'Lucky Kunst', featuring a group of young artists from New York, opened some weeks later. We seemed to lose Sam [Taylor-Wood] shortly after the opening of part one, later finding out that she had split with partner Jake Chapman for artist Henry Bond, a well-known Goldsmiths graduate. In the early days, Bond had formed part of a clique with fellow Goldsmiths artist Liam Gillick; his then partner Angela Bulloch, had gone out with Damien Hirst before Hirst went out with Maia Norman, Jay Jopling's former partner. Taylor-Wood would eventually split with Henry Bond and marry Jopling while Liam Gillick went on to marry Sarah Morris, one of the American artists featured in part two of 'Lucky Kunst.'^[8]

Gillan Wearing's long-term partner is fellow YBA Michael Landy.^[9] Writing in the Spring issue of RA Magazine, Nigel Billen said, "His [Landy's] partner, Gillian Wearing, is an RA (as is one of his best friends, the artist Gary Hume) ... Landy met Hume and Damien Hirst at Goldsmiths College in the mid-1980s, meeting Emin and other YBAs around the same time. 'We were all in the same boat. It was: Let’s try to do something together.'"^[10]

Reaction[link]

Positive[link]

Richard Cork (at one time art critic of The Times) has been a staunch advocate of the artists, as has art writer Louisa Buck, and former Time Out art editor, Sarah Kent. Sir Nicholas Serota has validated the artists by the nomination of several of them for the Turner Prize and their inclusion in the Tate collection.

Maureen Paley said, "The thing that came out of the YBA generation was boldness, a belief that you can do anything."^[11]

Speaking in 2009, Iwona Blazwick the director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery said, "The YBA moment is definitely now dead, but anyone who thinks they were a cut-off point is wrong. They began something which has continued to grow ever since. It's not over."^[12]

Negative[link]

In 1998, John Windsor in The Independent said that the work of the YBAs seemed tame compared with that of the "shock art" of the 1970s, including "kinky outrages" at the Nicholas Treadwell Gallery, amongst which were a "hanging, anatomically detailed leather straitjacket, complete with genitals", titled Pink Crucifixion, by Mandy Havers.^[13]

In 1999 the Stuckists art group was founded with an overt anti-YBA agenda. In 2002 Britart was heavily criticised by the leading conductor Sir Simon Rattle, who was, in return, accused of having a poor understanding of conceptual and visual art.^{[citation needed]}

Playwright Tom Stoppard made a public denunciation, and Brian Sewell (art critic of the Evening Standard) has consistently been hostile, as has David Lee, the editor of Jackdaw. Rolf Harris, the television presenter and artist, singled out Tracey Emin's My Bed as the kind of installation that put people off art. "I don't see how getting out of bed and leaving the bed unmade and putting it on show and saying that's worth, I don't know £31,000 ... I don't believe it, I think it's a con."

For James Heartfield "The 1990s art boom encouraged sloppiness. The Young British Artists preferred the inspired gesture to patient work. They added public outrage to their palettes, only to find that it faded very quickly."^[14][1]

Members of the group are parodied in a regular cartoon strip by Birch, titled "Young British Artists", in the British satirical magazine Private Eye.

[edit] Artists exhibited in Freeze

Damien Hirst

Sam Taylor-Wood

Henry Bond

Tracey Emin

• Steven Adamson
• Angela Bulloch
• Mat Collishaw
• Ian Davenport
• Angus Fairhurst
• Anya Gallaccio
• Damien Hirst
• Gary Hume
• Michael Landy
• Abigail Lane
• Sarah Lucas
• Lala Meredith-Vula
• Richard Patterson
• Stephen Park
• Fiona Rae

[edit] Artists exhibited in Brilliant!

• Henry Bond
• Glenn Brown
• Jake and Dinos Chapman
• Adam Chodzko
• Mat Collishaw
• Tracey Emin
• Angus Fairhurst
• Anya Gallaccio
• Liam Gillick
• Damien Hirst
• Gary Hume
• Michael Landy
• Abigail Lane
• Sarah Lucas
• Chris Ofili
• Steven Pippin
• Alessandro Raho
• Georgina Starr
• Sam Taylor-Wood
• Gillian Wearing
• Rachel Whiteread

Other YBAs[link]

• Fiona Banner^[15][16]
• Christine Borland
• Tacita Dean^[17]
• Douglas Gordon
• Marcus Harvey
• Marc Quinn
• Jane and Louise Wilson
• Jenny Saville

References[link]

External links[link]

• Letter from London: Sensation, contemporaneous review of the exhibition
• A critique on the "Britpack" by Liz Ellis
• Flashing Emin,Critical Analysis of “Spectacular” Contemporary Arts by Kubilay Akman
• The British Avant-Garde: A Philosophical Analysis, Deborah Fitzgerald, Furman University

v t e Damien Hirst Artworks For the Love of God The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living Films Hanging Around Solo shows Beautiful Inside My Head Forever Group shows Freeze Sensation Modern Medicine Brilliant! Movement Young British Artists

A partial list of artists active in Britain, arranged chronologically (artists born in the same year should be arranged alphabetically within that year).

Born before 1700[link]

• Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/8–1543) - German artist and printmaker who became court painter in England
• Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder (c.1520–c.1590) - Flemish printmaker and painter for the English court of the mid-16th Century
• George Gower (1540–1596) - English portrait painter
• Nicholas Hilliard (1547–1619) - English goldsmith, limner, portrait miniature painter
• Rowland Lockey (c. 1565–1616) - English goldsmith, portrait miniaturist, painter
• Isaac Oliver (c.1565–1617) - French-born English portrait miniature painter
• Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) - Flemish Baroque painter, watercolourist and etcher who became court painter in England
• Wenceslaus Hollar (1607–1677) - Czech etcher
• Samuel Cooper (c.1608–1672) - English miniature painter
• John Michael Wright (1617–1694) - British baroque portrait painter
• Peter Lely (1618–1680) - Dutch painter and portrait artist in England
• Francis Barlow (1626?–1704) - English painter, etcher, and illustrator
• David Loggan (1635–1692) - British baroque painter
• Godfrey Kneller (1646/9–1723) - portrait painter in England
• Francis Place (1647–1728)
• James Thornhill (1675–1734) - English painter of historical subjects
• Jonathan Richardson (1665–1745), English portrait painter
• Peter Monamy (1681–1749) - English marine painter
• John Wootton (1682–1764) - English painter of sporting subjects, battle scenes and landscapes
• John Michael Rysbrack (1694–1770) - Flemish sculptor working in London
• John Vanderbank (1694–1739) - English portrait painter and book illustrator
• William Hogarth (1697–1764) - English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist

Born 1700–1799[link]

• Henri Jean-Baptiste Victoire Fradelle (1778–1865) - Franco-English painter specializing in literary, historical and religious subjects.
• Louis François Roubiliac (1702/5–1762) - French sculptor whose works reside in Westminster Abbey
• Samuel Scott (1702–1770)
• James Seymour (c.1702–1752) - English painter especially of equestrian art
• William Hoare (1707?–1792) - English painter especially of pastels
• Francis Hayman (1708–1776) - English painter, illustrator, and one of the founding members of the Royal Academy
• Arthur Devis (c1711–1787) - English portrait painter, especially of conversation pieces and other small portraits
• Allan Ramsay (1713–1784) - Scottish portrait-painter
• Richard Wilson (1713–1782) - Welsh landscape painter and one of the founder members of the Royal Academy
• Alexander Cozens (1717?–1786) - British landscape-painter in water-colours and a published teacher of painting
• Charles Brooking (1723–1759)
• Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) - English painter specialising in portraits
• George Stubbs (1724–1806) - British painter especially of horses
• Francis Cotes (1726–1770) English painter
• Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) - English portrait and landscape painters
• Paul Sandby (1730–1809) - English map-maker turned landscape painter in watercolours
• Sawrey Gilpin (1733–1807) - English animal painter
• Johann Zoffany (1733–1810) - German neoclassical painter, active mainly in England
• George Romney (1734–1802) - English portrait painter
• Joseph Wright (1734–1797) - English landscape and portrait painter
• Alexander Runciman (1736–1785) - Scottish painter of historical and mythological subjects
• Joseph Nollekens (1737–1823) - Sculptor from London
• Francis Towne (1739/40–1816) - English water-colour painter
• Angelica Kauffmann (1740–1807) - Swiss-Austrian painter
• Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg (1740–1812) - English artist of French origin
• William Marlow (1740–1813), English landscape and marine artist
• John Hamilton Mortimer (1740–1779) - British Neoclassical painter especially of romantic paintings
• Matthew William Peters (1742–1814)
• James Barry (1741–1806) - Irish painter
• Henry Fuseli (1741–1825) - British painter, draughtsman, and writer on art, of German-Swiss origin
• Richard Cosway (1742–1821) - English portrait painter, miniaturist
• Ozias Humphrey (1742–1810) - English painter of portrait miniatures
• John Robert Cozens (1752–1797) - English draftsman and painter of romantic watercolor landscapes
• Thomas Bewick (1753–1828) - English wood engraver and ornithologist
• Thomas Stothard (1755–1834 - English painter and engraver
• Prince Hoare (1755–1834), painter and dramatist
• Henry Raeburn (1756–1823) - Scottish portrait painter
• Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827) - English artist and caricaturist
• William Blake (1757–1827) - English poet, painter, and printmaker
• Alexander Nasmyth (1758–1840) - Scottish portrait and landscape painter
• Lemuel Francis Abbott (1760–1803) - English portrait painter
• Thomas Lawrence (1760–1830) - English painter, mostly of portraits
• John Charles Felix Rossi (1762–1839) - sculptor
• Arthur William Devis (1762–1822) - English painter of history paintings and portraits
• George Morland (1763–1804) - English painter of animals and rustic scenes
• John Crome (1768–1821) - English artist, founder of the Norwich school of painters
• James Ward (1769–1859) - English painter, particularly of animals, and an engraver
• Thomas Phillips (1770–1845) - English portrait and subject painter
• Thomas Girtin (1775–1802) - English painter, watercolourist, and etcher
• Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) - English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker
• John Constable (1776–1837) - English Romantic painter
• John Varley (1778–1842) - English watercolour painter and astrologer
• Augustus Wall Callcott (1779–1844) - English landscape painter
• Samuel Colman (1780–1845)
• John Sell Cotman (1782–1842) - Artist of the Norwich school, mainly in watercolour
• Frederick Nash (painter) (1782–1856), architectural and landscape painter
• David Cox (1783–1859) - English landscape painter
• Samuel Prout (1783–1852) - English water-colour painter
• Peter De Wint (1784–1849) - English landscape painter
• John Romney (1785–1863) - mainly printmaking and watercolour
• David Wilkie (1785–1841) - Scottish painter
• William Mulready (1786–1863) - Irish genre painter living in London
• Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846) - English historical painter and writer
• Patrick Nasmyth (1787–1831) - Scottish landscape painter
• John Martin (1789–1854) - English painter
• William Henry Hunt (1790–1864) - English water-color painter
• George Hayter (1792–1871) English painter, specialising in portraits
• John Linnell (1792–1882) - English landscape painter
• Francis Danby (1793–1861) - Irish painter
• Edward Calvert (1799–1883) - English printmaker and painter
• James Holland (1799–1870), Landscape painter and illustrator

Born 1800–1899[link]

• Arthur Elliot ( - ) - British watercolourist
• Richard Parkes Bonington (1802–1828) - English Romantic landscape painter
• Edwin Landseer (1802–1873) - English painter and sculptor especially of animals - particularly horses, dogs and stags
• Thomas Shotter Boys (1803–1874)
• Thomas Sidney Cooper (1803–1902) - English painter especially of cattle and farm animals
• John Steell (1804–1891) - Scottish sculptor
• John Frederick Lewis (1804–1876) - Orientalist English painter
• Samuel Palmer (1805–1881) - English landscape painter, etcher and printmaker
• William Dyce (1806–1864) - Scottish artist
• William James Blacklock (1816–1858) - English landscape artist, painting scenery in Cumbria, the Lake District and the Scottish Borders
• Edward Armitage (1817–1896) - English Victorian era painter especially of historical, classical and biblical subjects
• Richard Dadd (1817–1886) - English painter especially of fairies and other supernatural subjects, Orientalist scenes, and enigmatic genre scenes
• Walter Hood Fitch (1817–1892) - Scottish botanist and botanical artist
• George Frederick Watts (1817–1904) - English Victorian painter and sculptor of the Symbolist movement
• Branwell Brontë (1817–1848) - English portrait painter. One of the Brontë children, brother of Anne, Emily and Charlotte. Occasional poet and writer
• William Powell Frith (1819–1909) - English painter specialising in portraits and Victorian era narratives
• Ford Madox Brown (1821–1893) - English painter of moral and historical subjects
• Abraham Solomon (1824–1862)
• Thomas Woolner (1825–1892) - English sculptor and poet
• William Holman Hunt (1827–1910) - British painter, founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
• Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) - English poet, illustrator, painter and translator
• Edwin Long (1829–1890) - English orientalist painter, depicting Biblical and Middle Eastern subjects
• John Everett Millais (1829–1896) - English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
• Alfred William Hunt (1830–1896) - English painter
• Frederic Leighton (1830–1896) - English painter and sculptor especially of historical, biblical and classical subject matter
• Marianne North (1830–1890) - English naturalist and flower-painter
• John William Bailey (1831–1914) - British miniature painter
• Benjamin Williams Leader (1831–1923) - English painter
• Arthur Hughes (1832–1915) - English painter and illustrator associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
• William Quiller Orchardson (1832–1910) - Scottish portraitist and painter of domestic and historical subjects
• Edward Burne-Jones (1833–1898) - English artist and designer
• William Morris (1834–1896) - English artist, writer, and socialist
• James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) - American-born, British-based painter and etcher
• William McTaggart (1835–1910) - Scottish landscape painter
• Arthur Boyd Houghton (1836–1875) - British painter (oil and watercolours) and illustrator
• John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836–1893) - English painter especially of landscapes
• Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836–1912) - British classical-subject painter
• James Tissot (1836–1902) - French painter of portraits as well as genre subjects
• Simeon Solomon (1840–1905) - English Pre-Raphaelite painter
• Frederick Walker (1840–1875) - English Social Realist painter and illustrator in watercolours and oils
• Albert Moore (1841–1893) - English painter especially of langorous female figures set against the luxury and decadence of the classical world
• Alexander Mark Rossi (1841–1916) - British artist specializing in genre works
• Walter Crane (1845–1915) - English artist and book illustrator
• Frank Holl (1845–1888) - English painter
• Walter Greaves (1846–1930) - English painter
• Ralph Hedley (1848–1913) - English realist painter, woodcarver and illustrator
• John William Waterhouse (1849–1917) - English Pre-Raphaelite painter especially of female characters from mythology and literature
• John Collier (1850–1934) - British writer and painter in the Pre-Raphaelite style
• Edward Robert Hughes (1851–1914) - English painter in a Pre-Raphaelitism and Aestheticism style
• Edmund Blair Leighton (1853–1922) - English painter in Pre-Raphaelite and Romantic styles
• Frank Bernard Dicksee (1853–1928) - English Victorian painter and illustrator especially of dramatic historical and legendary scenes
• Walter Dendy Sadler (1854–1923) - English painter.
• Alfred Wallis (1855–1942) - Cornish fisherman and artist
• David Horatio Winder (1855–1933) - Bolton, Lancashire-born British Artist - oil & watercolour
• James Pittendreigh MacGillivray (1856–1938) - Scottish sculptor
• John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) - Portrait painter of his era, landscape painter and watercolorist
• Richard Caton Woodville (1856–1927) - English artist, and illustrator especially of battle scenes
• Walter Sickert (1860–1942) - English Impressionist painter
• Philip Wilson Steer (1860–1942) - English artist
• Arthur Wardle (1864–1949) - English painter
• William Edwin Pimm (1864–1952) British Artist - oil & watercolours
• Robert Bevan (1865–1925)
• H. Gustave Hiller (1865–1946), mainly of stained glass
• Roger Fry (1866–1934) - English artist and an art critic
• Frank Brangwyn (1867–1956) - Welsh artist, painter, water colourist, virtuoso engraver and illustrator, and progressive designer
• Charles Murray Padday (1868–1954) - English painter
• William Ratcliffe (1870–1955)
• Sholto Johnstone Douglas (1871–1958) - Scottish artist
• William Nicholson (1872–1949) - English painter, illustrator and author of children's books
• Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (1872–1898) - English illustrator and author especially of erotic illustrations
• Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale (1872–1945) - English artist and illustrator
• John Duncan Fergusson (1874–1961) - Scottish artist, one of the Scottish Colourists school of painting
• Arthur Henry Knighton-Hammond (1875–1970) - English painter best known for landscapes, society portraits, and industrial paintings
• Harold Gilman (1876–1919) - English artist and founder-member of the Camden Town Group
• Gwen John (1876–1939) - Welsh artist
• Horace Tuck (1876–1951) - Norfolk artist of oil and watercolour landscapes
• Donald Maxwell (1877–1936) - English illustrator and painter in oils and watercolours
• Frank Cadogan Cowper (1877–1958) - English artist
• Charles Ginner (1878–1952) - French-born painter, member of Camden Town Group
• Spencer Gore (1878–1914) - British painter who was first president of the Camden Town Group
• William Reid Dick (1879–1961) - Scottish sculptor
• Augustus John (1878–1961) - Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher
• Vanessa Bell (1879–1961) - English painter and interior designer
• Matthew Smith (1879–1959) - English painter
• Malcolm Drummond (1880–1945) - English artist, noted for his paintings of urban scenes and interiors
• Jacob Epstein (1880–1959) - American-born sculptor who worked chiefly in the UK, where he pioneered modern sculpture
• Eric Gill (1882–1940) - British sculptor, typeface designer, stonecutter and printmaker
• Percy Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957) - English painter and author
• Henry Lamb (1883–1960) - Australian-born British painter
• Arthur Watts (1883–1935) - Illustrator
• Duncan Grant (1885–1978) - Scottish painter and member of the Bloomsbury Group
• Gwen Raverat (1885–1957) - English wood engraving artist who co-founded the Society of Wood Engravers
• L. S. Lowry (1887–1976) - English artist
• Paul Nash (1889–1946) - English war artist
• Christopher Nevinson (1889–1946) - English painter and vorticist
• Robert Gibbings (1889–1958) - Irish artist and author especially as a wood engraver and for books on travel and natural history
• Edward Wadsworth (1889–1949) - English artist
• Nina Hamnett (1890–1956) - Welsh artist and writer
• David Bomberg (1890–1957) - English painter and one of the Whitechapel Boys
• Iain Macnab (1890–1967)
• Leon Underwood (1890–1975) - British sculptor, painter, and engraver
• Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (1891–1915) - French sculptor and vorticist
• Mark Gertler (1891–1939) - British portrait and landscape painter
• Stanley Spencer (1891–1959) - English painter especially of Biblical scenes
• Gilbert Spencer (1892–1978)
• John Nash (1893–1977) - English painter, illustrator, and engraver
• Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893–1968) - English painter and etcher
• Henry Matthew Talintyre (1893–1962) - British artist
• Flora Twort (1893–1985) - English painter who specialised in watercolours and pastels
• Ben Nicholson (1894–1982) - English abstract painter
• David Jones (1895–1974) - Welsh artist and British modernist poet
• William Roberts (1895–1980) - English painter and war artist
• John Buckland Wright (1897–1954)
• Henry Moore (1898–1986) - English artist and sculptor

Born 1900–1949[link]

• Roland Penrose (1900–1984)
• Harold Tamblyn-Watts (1900–1999)
• Gertrude Hermes (1901–1983)
• Christopher Wood (1901–1930)
• Simon Elwes (1902–1975)
• Barbara Hepworth (1903–1975)
• John Piper (1903–1992)
• Eric Ravilious (1903–1942)
• Ceri Richards (1903–1971)
• Albert Houthuesen (1903–1979)
• Graham Sutherland (1903–1980)
• Reg Bunn (1905–1971)
• Edward Burra (1905–1976)
• Eliot Hodgkin (1905–1987)
• Kenneth Martin (1905–1984)
• Vernon Ward (1905–1985)
• Rex Whistler (1905–1944)
• Joan Hassall (1906–1988)
• Reginald Ben Davis (1907–1998)
• Brenda Landon, later Brenda Pye (1907–2005)
• Claude Rogers (1907–1979)
• William Coldstream (1908–1987)
• Victor Pasmore (1908–1998)
• Carel Weight (1908–1997)
• Harold Frank Hoar (1909–1976)
• Francis Bacon (1909–1992) - born in Ireland
• Leslie Hurry (1909–1978)
• Rodrigo Moynihan (1910–1990)
• Roger Hilton (1911–1975)
• Keith Vaughan (1912–1977)
• Joan Hutt (1913–1985)
• Reg Butler (1913–1981)
• Lynn Chadwick (1914–2003)
• Harold Hitchcock (1914–2009)
• Norman Whitehead (1915–1983)
• John Bridgeman (1916 –2004)
• Anthony Robert Klitz (1917–2000)
• John Minton (1917–1957)
• John Kashdan (1917–2001)
• James Lawrence Isherwood (1917–1989)
• Peter Lanyon (1918–1964)
• Cliff Holden (1919–)
• Lucian Freud (1922–2011)
• Richard Hamilton (1922–)
• Eduardo Paolozzi (1922–2005)
• Miles Peter Richmond (1922–2008)
• William McLaren (1923–1987)
• Anthony Caro (1924–)
• Anthony Earnshaw (1924–2001)
• Erich von Götha de la Rosière (1924–)
• Keith Sutton (1924–1991)
• Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925–2006)
• Beryl Cook (1926–2008)
• Leon Kossoff (1926–)
• Edna Mann (1926–1985)
• Patrick Swift (1927–1983) - born in Ireland
• Michael Andrews (1928–1995)
• John Copnall (1928–2007)
• Dorothy Mead (1928–1975)
• Victor Willing (1928–1988)
• Robyn Denny (1930–)
• David Gentleman (1930–)
• Donald Pass (1930–)
• John Ambrose (1931–)
• Frank Auerbach (1931–)
• Dennis Creffield (1931–)
• Bridget Riley (1931–)
• Norman Douglas Hutchinson (1932–2010) - Royal Painter.
• Peter Blake (1932–)
• Howard Hodgkin (1932–)
• Ken Howard (1932–)
• R.B. Kitaj (1932–2007) - born in USA
• Euan Uglow (1932–2000)
• Ian Weatherhead (1932–)
• Richard Allen (1933–1999)
• John Hoyland (1934–2011)
• Paula Rego (1935–) - born in Portugal
• David Hockney (1937–)
• Allen Jones (1937–)
• Tom Phillips (1937–)
• Terry Atkinson (1939–)
• Anthony Green (1939–)
• Patrick Hughes (1939 –)
• John Walker (1939–) - painter and printmaker
• John Byrne (1940–)
• Robert Lenkiewicz (1941–2002)
• Barry Flanagan (1941–2009)
• Ruth Rix (1942–)
• Alan Aldridge (1943–)
• Grange Calveley (1943–)
• Zacron (1943–) - Multi Media Artist, Writer, Broadcaster
• David Paskett (1944–)
• Bruce McLean (1944–)
• Ali Omar Ermes (1945–)
• Anthony Christian (1945–)
• Richard Long (1945–)
• Lewis Blake (1946–)
• Linda Sutton (1947–)
• Godfrey Blow (1948–)

Born 1950 and later[link]

• Pete Gilbert (1950–), graphic designer and painter
• Anthony Gormley (1950–)
• Edward Allington (1951–)
• Paul Kenny (1951–)
• Stephen Pusey (1952–)
• Melinda Camber Porter (1953–2008) painter writer filmmaker journalist The Times lived in London Paris and New York
• Chris Gollon (1953–)
• Charles Thomson (1953–)
• Aidan Hughes (1954–)
• David Tress (1955–)
• Errol Francis (1956–)
• Thomas Hodges (1957–) - Photographic and Mixed Media Artist
• Willard Wigan (1957–)
• Lennie Lee (1958–) - born in South Africa
• Keith Salmon (1959–) - Scottish landscape painter born in England
• Andy Dog Johnson (1959–)
• Hew Locke (1959–) - born in Scotland
• John Foulger (1960–2006)
• Grayson Perry (1960–)
• Christopher Wood (1962–)
• Tracey Emin (1963–)
• Nasser Azam (1963–)
• Kevin McCourt (1964–)
• Tom Cartmill (1965–)
• Damien Hirst (1965–)
• Sarah Lucas (1965–)
• Robert Priseman (1965–)
• Christian Furr (1966–)
• Stuart Semple 1980–)
• Guy Tarrant (1966–)
• Ian Davenport (1966–)
• Juno Doran (1966–)
• Igor Kufayev (1966–)
• Peter Brown (1967–)
• Chris Ofili (1968–)
• Suling Wang (1968–)
• Jonathan Myles-Lea (born 23 January 1969–) is an English painter of country houses, historic buildings, and landscapes in a miniaturist technique, typically taking the form of aerial views.
• Chantal Joffe (1969–)
• Michael Gustavius Payne (1969–)
• Justin Mortimer (1970–)
• Jonathan Kearney (1971–)
• Des Taylor (1971 –)
• Peter Liversidge(1973 –)
• Banksy (1974–)
• Tom Palin (1974–)
• Stephen Wiltshire (1974–) - savant artist
• Benedict Carpenter (1975–)
• Graham Nicholls (1975–)
• Lucy Skaer (1975–)
• Matt O'dell (1976–)
• Maryam Hashemi(1977 –)
• Claire Hooper (Artist) (1978–)
• Molly Garnier (1981–)
• Anna King (1984–)
• Johan Andersson (artist) (1986–)
• Theo Adams (1989–)
• Pogus Caesar (?–) - Born in St Kitts
• Bill Ward (–1996)