Sensation exhibition
Encyclopedia
Charles Saatchi
Charles Saatchi is the co-founder with his brother Maurice of the global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and led that business - the world's largest advertising agency in the 1980s - until they were forced out in 1995. In the same year the Saatchi brothers formed a new agency called M&C...
, including many works by Young British Artists
Young British Artists
Young British Artists or YBAs is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988...
, which first took place 18 September – 28 December 1997 at the Royal Academy of Art in London and later toured to Berlin and New York. A proposed showing at the National Gallery of Australia was cancelled when the gallery's director decided the exhibition was "too close to the market."
The show generated controversy in London and New York due to the inclusion of images of Myra Hindley and the Virgin Mary. The show consisted of work from the collection of Charles Saatchi
Charles Saatchi
Charles Saatchi is the co-founder with his brother Maurice of the global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and led that business - the world's largest advertising agency in the 1980s - until they were forced out in 1995. In the same year the Saatchi brothers formed a new agency called M&C...
. It was criticised by New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani and others for attempting to boost the value of the work by showing it in institutions and public museums.
Works
Charles Saatchi
Charles Saatchi is the co-founder with his brother Maurice of the global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and led that business - the world's largest advertising agency in the 1980s - until they were forced out in 1995. In the same year the Saatchi brothers formed a new agency called M&C...
, a leading collector, adman and publiciser of contemporary art. Norman Rosenthal
Norman Rosenthal
Sir Norman Rosenthal is a British curator. He was Exhibitions Secretary at the Royal Academy from 1977 until 2008. His encyclopedic programme of exhibitions which stretched from Egyptian antiquities to recent art production, included the exhibition of Charles Saatchi's collection of contemporary...
, the Royal Academy of Arts exhibitions secretary, helped to stage the 110 works by 42 different artists. Many of the pieces had already become famous, or notorious, with the British public (for example, Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
's shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
suspended in formaldehyde
Formaldehyde
Formaldehyde is an organic compound with the formula CH2O. It is the simplest aldehyde, hence its systematic name methanal.Formaldehyde is a colorless gas with a characteristic pungent odor. It is an important precursor to many other chemical compounds, especially for polymers...
titled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living is an artwork created in 1991 by Damien Hirst, an English artist and a leading member of the "Young British Artists" . It consists of a tiger shark preserved in formaldehyde in a vitrine. It was originally commissioned in 1991 by...
, Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin
Tracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
's tent titled Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995), Marc Quinn
Marc Quinn
Marc Quinn is a British artist and part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs . He is known for Alison Lapper Pregnant , Self , and Garden .He is one of the Young British...
's self-portrait (a frozen head made from pints of his own blood) and Sarah Lucas
Sarah Lucas
Sarah Lucas is an English artist. She is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged during the 1990s...
's explicitly sexual images and sculptures. Others had already achieved prominence in other ways, such as a successful advertising campaign using an idea from Gillian Wearing
Gillian Wearing
Gillian Wearing OBE RA is an English conceptual artist, one of the YBAs, and winner of the annual British fine arts award, The Turner Prize, in 1997. On 11 December 2007, Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London....
's photographs. Sensation was the first time that a wide audience had had the chance to see these works en masse. The Royal Academy posted this disclaimer to visitors on entry:
London
The opening of Sensation at the Royal AcademyRoyal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
caused a public furore and a media frenzy, with both broadsheet
Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...
and tabloid
Tabloid journalism
Tabloid journalism tends to emphasize topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news...
journalists falling over themselves to comment on the show’s controversial images, and unprecedented crowds queuing up to see for themselves what all the fuss was about. Around a quarter of the RA's 80 academicians gave a warning that the exhibition was inflammatory. They and some members of the public complained about several other exhibits, notably the installations by Jake and Dinos Chapman
Jake and Dinos Chapman
Iakovos "Jake" Chapman and Konstantinos "Dinos" Chapman are English visual artists, often known as the Chapman Brothers, who work together as a collaborative sibling duo...
, which were of child mannequins with noses replaced by penises and mouths in the form of an anus.
However, the biggest media controversy was over Myra
Myra (painting)
Myra is a large painting created by Marcus Harvey in 1995. It became notorious when it was exhibited at the Sensation exhibition of Young British Artists at the Royal Academy of Art in London from 8 September to 28 December 1997.-Painting:...
, an image of the murderer Myra Hindley
Moors murders
The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around what is now Greater Manchester, England. The victims were five children aged between 10 and 17—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans—at least...
by Marcus Harvey
Marcus Harvey
Marcus Harvey is an English artist and painter, one of the Young British Artists .-Exhibitions:Harvey has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including ‘The Führer's Cakes’ at Galleria Marabini in Bologna, ‘Snaps’ at White Cube in London, ‘Sex and the British’ at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac...
.
The Mothers Against Murder and Aggression protest group picketed the show, accompanied by Winnie Johnson, the mother of one of Hindley's victims, who asked for the portrait, made up of hundreds of copies of a child's handprint, to be excluded to protect her feelings. Along with supporters she picketed the show's first day. Myra Hindley sent a letter from jail suggesting that her portrait be removed from the exhibition, reasoning that such action was necessary because the work was “a sole disregard not only for the emotional pain and trauma that would inevitably be experienced by the families of the Moors victims but also the families of any child victim.” Despite all the protest the painting remained hanging. Windows at Burlington House, the Academy's home, were smashed and two demonstrators hurled ink and eggs at the picture as a result, requiring it to be removed and restored. It was put back on display behind Perspex and guarded by security men.
In a press conference on 16 September 1997, David Gordon, Secretary of the Royal Academy commented on the controversial portrait: "The majority view inside the Academy was that millions and millions of images of Myra Hindley have been reproduced in newspapers and magazines. Books have been written about the murders. Television programmes have been made. Hindley’s image is in the public domain; part of our consciousness; an awful part of our recent social history; a legitimate subject for journalism -- and for art."
The show was extremely popular with the general public, attracting over 300,000 visitors during its run, helped by the media attention which the strong subject matter had received. The BBC described it as "gory images of dismembered limbs and explicit pornography".
Berlin
Sensation was shown at the Berlin Hamburger Bahnhof museum (30 September 1998 – 30 January 1999) and proved so popular that it was extended past its original closing date of 28 December 1998. For art critic Nicola Kuhn from Der Tagesspiegel, there was “no sensation about Sensation”. She claimed that the Berlin audience found the yBa's work “more sad and serious than irreverent, funny and dazzling”New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
at the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
from 2 October 1999 to 9 January 2000. The New York show was met with instant protest, centering on The Holy Virgin Mary
The Holy Virgin Mary
The Holy Virgin Mary is a painting created by Chris Ofili in 1996. It was one of the works included in the Sensation exhibition in London, Berlin and New York in 1997–2000...
by Chris Ofili
Chris Ofili
Chris Ofili is a Turner Prize winning British painter best known for artworks referencing aspects of his Nigerian heritage, particularly his incorporation of elephant dung. He was one of the Young British Artists, and is now based in Trinidad.-Early life:Ofilli was born in Manchester. He had a...
, which had not provoked this reaction in London. While the press reported that the piece was "smeared", "splattered" or "stained" with elephant dung, Ofili's work in fact showed a carefully rendered black Madonna decorated with a resin-covered lump of elephant dung. The figure is also surrounded by small collaged images of female genitalia from pornographic magazines; these seemed from a distance to be the traditional cherubim.
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who had seen the work in the catalogue but not in the show, called it "sick stuff" and threatened to withdraw the annual $7 million City Hall grant from the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
hosting the show, because "You don't have a right to government subsidy for desecrating somebody else's religion." Cardinal John O'Connor, the Archbishop of New York, said, "one must ask if it is an attack on religion itself," and the president of America's biggest group of Orthodox Jews, Mandell Ganchrow, called it "deeply offensive". William A. Donohue
William A. Donohue
William Anthony "Bill" Donohue is the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in the United States, a position he has held since 1993.-Life and career:...
, President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said the work "induces revulsion". Giuliani started a lawsuit to evict the museum, and Arnold Lehman, the museum director, filed a federal lawsuit against Giuliani for a breach of the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
.
Hillary Clinton spoke up for the museum, as did the New York Civil Liberties Union. The editorial board of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
said, Giuliani's stance "promises to begin a new Ice Age in New York's cultural affairs." The paper also carried a full-page advertisement in support signed by over 100 actors, writers and artists, including Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
, Steve Martin
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
, Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
, Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
, Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
and Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
. Ofili, who is Roman Catholic, said, "elephant dung in itself is quite a beautiful object."
The United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
passed a nonbinding resolution to end federal funding for the museum on 3 October 1999, and New York City did stop funding to the Brooklyn Museum. On 1 November, federal judge Nina Gershon
Nina Gershon
Nina Gershon is a federal district judge in the Eastern District of New York. She was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1996 at the recommendation of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan...
ordered the City not only to restore the funding that was denied to the Museum, but also to refrain from continuing its ejectment action. On 16 December 1999, a 72-year-old man was arrested for criminal mischief after smearing the Ofili painting with white paint, which was soon removed.
The museum produced a yellow stamp, saying the artworks on show "may cause shock, vomiting, confusion, panic, euphoria and anxiety." and Ofili's painting was shown behind a Plexiglass screen, guarded by a museum attendant and an armed police officer. Jeffrey Hogrefe, art critic for the New York Observer
New York Observer
The New York Observer is a weekly newspaper first published in New York City on September 22, 1987, by Arthur L. Carter, a very successful former investment banker with publishing interests. The Observer focuses on the city's culture, real estate, the media, politics and the entertainment and...
, commented about the museum, "They wanted to get some publicity and they got it. I think it was pretty calculated." The editor-in-chief of the New York Art & Auction
Art & Auction
Art+Auction is a monthly art magazine published in New York City by Louise Blouin Media. The magazine is published 12 times per year; it includes special features & art news stories, art & collector profiles, reviews & auction reports, calendar of art events, art market trends & insider market...
magazine, Bruce Wolmer,said: "When the row eventually fades the only smile will be on the face of Charles Saatchi, a master self-promoter."
Australia
The show was scheduled to open in June 1999 at the National Gallery of AustraliaNational Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia is the national art gallery of Australia, holding more than 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :...
, but was cancelled with the director, Brian Kennedy, saying that, although it was due to be funded by the Australian government, it was "too close to the market" since finance for the Brooklyn exhibition included $160,000 from Saatchi, who owned the work; $50,000 from Christie's
Christie's
Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
, who had sold work for Saatchi; and $10,000 from dealers of many of the artists. Kennedy said he was unaware of this when he accepted the show. Saatchi's contribution, the largest single one, was not disclosed by the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
, until it appeared in court documents. Similarly, when the show opened in London at the Royal Academy, there had been criticisms that it would raise the value of the work.
YBAs
- Jake & Dinos Chapman
- Adam ChodzkoAdam ChodzkoAdam Chodzko is a contemporary British multi-media artist, exhibiting internationally.-Work:Adam Chodzko was born in London, England...
- Mat CollishawMat CollishawMatthew "Mat" Collishaw is an artist based in London, and one of the Young British Artists.-Career:Collishaw attended Goldsmiths, University of London , alongside Damien Hirst and other YBA artists....
- Tracey EminTracey EminTracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
- Marcus HarveyMarcus HarveyMarcus Harvey is an English artist and painter, one of the Young British Artists .-Exhibitions:Harvey has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including ‘The Führer's Cakes’ at Galleria Marabini in Bologna, ‘Snaps’ at White Cube in London, ‘Sex and the British’ at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac...
- Damien HirstDamien HirstDamien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
- Gary HumeGary HumeGary Stewart Hume is an English artist. His work is strongly identified with the YBA artists who came to prominence in the early-1990s. In 1996, Hume was nominated for the Turner Prize, but lost out to Douglas Gordon. Hume was elected a Royal Academician in 2001.-Life and work:Hume was born in...
- Michael LandyMichael LandyMichael Landy RA is one of the Young British Artists . He is best known for the performance piece installation Break Down , in which he destroyed all his possessions, and for the Art Bin project at the South London Gallery. On 29 May 2008 Landy was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in...
- Abigail LaneAbigail LaneAbigail Lane is an English artist. Lane was one of the exhibitors in the 1988 Damien Hirst-led Freeze exhibition—a mixed show of art which was significant in the development of the later-to-be YBA scene of art.-Life and work:...
- Sarah LucasSarah LucasSarah Lucas is an English artist. She is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged during the 1990s...
- Chris OfiliChris OfiliChris Ofili is a Turner Prize winning British painter best known for artworks referencing aspects of his Nigerian heritage, particularly his incorporation of elephant dung. He was one of the Young British Artists, and is now based in Trinidad.-Early life:Ofilli was born in Manchester. He had a...
- Richard PattersonRichard PattersonRichard Patterson is an English artist and one of the Young British Artists . He is currently based in Dallas, Texas.-Education:...
- Simon Patterson
- Marc QuinnMarc QuinnMarc Quinn is a British artist and part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs . He is known for Alison Lapper Pregnant , Self , and Garden .He is one of the Young British...
- Fiona RaeFiona RaeFiona Rae is a British artist. Her work is firmly identified with the Young British Artists who rose to prominence in the 1990s....
- Sam Taylor-WoodSam Taylor-WoodSamantha "Sam" Taylor-Wood OBE , born Samantha Taylor, is an English filmmaker, photographer, and visual artist. Her directorial feature film debut came in 2009 with Nowhere Boy, a film based on the childhood experiences of The Beatles songwriter and singer John Lennon...
- Gavin TurkGavin TurkGavin Turk is a British artist and one of the Young British Artists . He often uses his own image in life-size sculptures of famous people.-Life and work:...
- Gillian WearingGillian WearingGillian Wearing OBE RA is an English conceptual artist, one of the YBAs, and winner of the annual British fine arts award, The Turner Prize, in 1997. On 11 December 2007, Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London....
- Rachel WhitereadRachel WhitereadRachel Whiteread, CBE is an English artist, best known for her sculptures, which typically take the form of casts. She won the annual Turner Prize in 1993—the first woman to win the prize....
Other artists from the Saatchi collection
- Darren AlmondDarren AlmondDarren James Almond is an artist based in London. He graduated from Winchester School of Arts in 1993, with a BA degree in Fine Arts.-Life and career:...
- Maurizio Anzeri
- Richard BillinghamRichard BillinghamRichard Billingham is an English photographer and artist who is best known for his photobook Ray's A Laugh which documents the life of his alcoholic father Ray, and obese, heavily-tattooed mother, Liz.-Career:...
- Glenn BrownGlenn BrownGlenn Brown is an English artist. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2000.-Working practice:Brown appropriates images created by living, working artists, such as Frank Auerbach and Howard Hodgkin, as well as images by artists more established in the historical canon, such as Rembrandt or...
- Simon CallerySimon Callery-Life and work:He was educated at Campions school, Athens, Greece, and gained a first class honours degree from Cardiff College of Art in 1983. He has worked in Turin, and is now resident in London.He first exhibited at the Whitechapel Open in 1989...
- Keith CoventryKeith CoventryKeith Coventry is a British artist and curator. In September 2010 his Spectrum Jesus painting won the £25,000 John Moores Painting Prize.-Early life:...
- Peter DaviesPeter Davies (artist)Peter Davies is an artist based in London.Davies studied at Goldsmiths College of Art, London. He has shown work internationally in exhibitions including Sensation at the Royal Academy of Art in London, Centro Brasileiro Britanico in Sao Paulo, Saatchi Gallery in London, Kunsthallen Brandts...
- Paul Finnegan
- Mark FrancisMark FrancisMark Francis was an English-American soccer midfielder who played in the American Soccer League, American Indoor Soccer Association, SISL and USISL. He has also coached at the high school, college and professional levels...
- Alex HartleyAlex HartleyAlex Hartley is a British artist whose work addresses complicated and sometimes contradictory attitudes toward the built environments.nowhereisland is Hartley's winning 2012 Cultural Olympiad project for the South West of England...
- Mona HatoumMona HatoumMona Hatoum is a video artist and installation artist of Palestinian origin, who lives in London.- Lebanon :...
- Langlands & Bell
- Martin MaloneyMartin MaloneyMartin Maloney is a contemporary English artist.-Life and work:Martin Maloney was born in London. He attended the University of Sussex 1980–83, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design 1988–91 and Goldsmiths College 1991–93.Martin Maloney practises deliberately "bad"...
- Jason Martin
- Alain Miller
- Ron MueckRon MueckRonald "Ron" Mueck is an Australian hyperrealist sculptor working in the United Kingdom.-Early work:Ron Mueck began his career working on the Australian children's television program Shirl's Neighbourhood...
- Jonathan ParsonsJonathan ParsonsJonathan Parsons was a Christian New England clergyman during the late colonial period and a supporter of the American Revolution. Born in West Springfield, Massachusetts, he was the youngest son of Ebenezer Parsons and Margaret Marshfield of Springfield. Though intended for an artisan career,...
- Hadrian Pigott
- James Rielly
- Jenny SavilleJenny SavilleJenny Saville is a contemporary British painter; best known as one of the Young British Artists. She is known for her large-scale painted depictions of naked women.-Life and career:Saville works and lives in Oxford, England...
- Yinka ShonibareYinka ShonibareYinka Shonibare, MBE, is a British-Nigerian artist living in the UK. He readily acknowledges physical disability as part of his identity but creates work in which this is just one strand of a far richer weave.-Life and career:...
- Jane SimpsonJane Simpson (artist)Jane Simpson is an English artist who lives and works in London. She primarily produces sculptures, using diverse elements such as ice, silicone rubber, wood, precious metals, glass, ceramics and household objects including items bought at flea markets and on eBay.- Biography :Jane Simpson...
- Mark WallingerMark WallingerMark Wallinger is a British artist, best known for his sculpture for the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, Ecce Homo , and State Britain , a recreation at Tate Britain of Brian Haw's protest display outside parliament. He won the Turner Prize in 2007...
- Cerith Wyn EvansCerith Wyn EvansCerith Wyn Evans is a Welsh conceptual artist, sculptor and film-maker.After studying at Saint Martin's School of Art and the Royal College of Art Wyn Evans worked as an assistant to Derek Jarman and his early experimental film work in the 1980s often concentrated on dancers including...
Further reading
- Rosenthal, Norman, Adams, Brooks, Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain), Saatchi Collection. Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection. April 1998. Thames and Hudson. London. book cover image
- Hirst, Damien. Damien Hirst pictures from the Saatchi Gallery. London: Booth-Clibborn Editions, 2001.
- Rothfield, Lawrence (ed). Unsettling 'Sensation': Arts-Policy from the Brooklyn Museum of Art Controversy. Rutgers University Press, 2001.
- Stallabrass, Julian, High Art Lite: British Art in the 1990s. London and New York: Verso, 2006
External links
- BBC review of the Sensation exhibition
- A timeline of the New York protests
- Links to the various artists involved in Sensation
- David Bowie ran the virtual Sensation exhibition (now over)
- Royal Academy of Arts
- Brooklyn Museum of Art
- Berlin Hamburger Bahnhof Museum - website and page on the Sensation exhibition in German