Lucky Kunst: The Rise and Fall of Young British Art

by Gregor Muir

These days artists like Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin are major celebrities. But Gregor Muir knew them at the start; his unique memoir chronicles the birth of Young British Art. Muir, YBA’s ‘embedded journalist’, happened to be in Shoreditch and Hoxton before Jay Jopling arrived with his White Cube Gallery, when this was still a semi-derelict landscape of grotty pubs and squats. There he witnessed, amid a whirl of drunkenness, scrapes and riotous hedonism, the coming-together of a remarkable array of young artists – Hirst, the Chapman brothers, Rachel Whiteread, Sam Taylor-Wood, Angus Fairhurst - who went on to produce a fresh, irreverent, often notorious form of art - Hirst’s shark, Sarah Lucas’s two fried eggs and a kebab. By the time of the seminal Sensation show at the Royal Academy YBA had changed the art world for ever.

Genres: Art, Art History

250 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2009

Reviews

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really want to give this 5 stars, but instead 4.5 is more appropriate. Muir retells the London art scene of the 1990's with immense detail. His friendships with famous artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin, and subsequent anecdotes, make this book a humerous history lesson. I don't know why I left it sitting on my bookcase unread for so many years.

[Natalia Gaj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Przyjemna, dobrze napisana i angażująca. Jeśli szukacie pozycji naukowej, która skrupulatnie wyjaśni wam owo zjawisko to niestety nie tutaj. Wspomnienia autora i osobiste doświadczenia oraz odczucia dominują, a wzmianki o drinkach, narkotykach, pubach i klubach mieszają się z datami najważniejszych wystaw i wzmiankami o zaledwie kilku dziełach. Książka jednak wspaniale oddaje klimat lat 90., a detale dotyczące sytuacji politycznej i ekonomicznej dopełniają ten szalony obrazek.

[Lu Squared · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whenever Hirst is mentioned in other books they say how he broke into the art world from the outside by having warehouse shows. That is a cursory explanation of what really happened.This book is a play by play of how it was actually a community of YBA’s who did that and it describes what they did step by step and how it actually came together in the social surroundings of pre gentrified London. This book also gave me better insight into the YBA’s work.
When I was a teenager I actually went to sensation on a class trip to the Brooklyn museum. I didn’t get it. Hirst’s dissected animals seemed like scientific illustrations. I’ve always found his work cold and clinical. The blood head bothered me because the mold wasn’t smooth and it’s all lumpy. It looks sloppy to me. But what does teenage me know. A few years later, I went to Sam Taylor Wood’s opening. She had some celebrities there and a wall full of photos of male actors crying. I liked the gender role reversal but my classmates who also went hated the photos because they were boring, not well shot and some were even out of focus. Reading this book gave me more insight and I appreciate the work more conceptually... a little bit.

[Robert Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to reading this but to be honest I found it a bit disappointing. It's touted on the cover as the inside story of 'the rise and fall of the Young British Artists', but I don't think it does this all that well. I'm not doubting the author's credentials, he was clearly in the thick of the action during the 1990s, but this book chiefly seems to be a memoir of wild partying. It reminded me of all those confessional 'quit lit' memoirs written by people who have subsequently cleaned up their act. The problem with this is that unless you're looking for prurient gossip its a bit like looking at other people's holiday photos - you're glad they had a good time but since you weren't there the experience soon becomes boring. As you'd expect from a professional gallerist and art critic the prose sparkles when he's actually talking about his experience of actual artworks, but there's too little of this and too much '... and then we all went to the Groucho and drank 'til we fell over'.

[Robyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hell of a ride. Packed with the crazy kind of stories i looked for from Hunter S. Thompson and didn't find. The YBA movement was full of characters and they all lived life to the full, moments of which Muir documents beautifully, right in the mix. I remember growing up with these works of art and knowing they were considered controversial and important but not quite understanding at that point, the historical significance of the times. It has to be a 10/10 for such an inspiring and exciting read.

[Tracy Hollen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Chris Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

A low-effort read but still worthwhile.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know how when you go to a gallery opening, everyone is drinking free booze with their backs to the art on the wall, and talking- industry gossip, openings, closing, where's the party afterwards, anything but the actual art? This is the book equivalent of that. That wouldn't be a bad thing, mind you, if the book was written well. It isn't, really.

I came away from the book imagining that, when his friends told him "you should write a book", his tone of voice and mannerisms were probably doing a lot of the legwork in making his anecdotes fun to listen to. On paper, they're flat. Muir writes that Young British Artists were interested in materials presented in their raw state without beautification of any kind, where concrete is concrete, a lead pipe is a lead pipe and a shark is a shark. In that case, this the perfect book for them- where cocaine is cocaine, Keith Allen is Keith Allen, and Damien Hirst is Damien Hirst (on the rare occasion he turns up, that is).

N.B. There's a single chapter in this dedicated to discussing the merits of the work itself and it amounts to, essentially, "it's like when Marcel Duchamp put a toilet in a gallery in 1919, but with better branding", and even that chapter gives up after two pages.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit to a wry chuckle as I see the double-takes from my fellow passengers on the Easyjet flight from Malaga to Gatwick. My reading material for the 2 ½ hour flight is ‘Lucky Kunst: The Rise & Fall of Young British Art’ by Gregor Muir. I’m still researching for 'Connectedness'. I've come to Malaga to tread in the footsteps of my character, artist Justine Tree, as she treads in the footsteps of Picasso.
Freeze, the 1988 art exhibition held by 16 Goldsmiths art students in a London Docklands warehouse and organised by Damien Hirst, first launched the yBa’s into the fusty art world. It wasn’t until 1992 thought that Charles Saatchi introduced the phrase ‘Young British Art’ with his exhibition. From then on, the 1990s were the time of Cool Britannia when artists and pop singers were invited to 10 Downing Street. This is Justine's time too.
I made Justine older than Hirst, Emin, Whiteread, Lucas etc. She graduates from art college in London in 1984 and is noticed by Charles Saatchi in 1993 when he anonymously buys three collages from her collection ‘Blues I, II & III’. In 1997 he exhibits two pieces from Justine’s next collection, ‘The Sea The Sea,’ at the Sensation exhibition and for the first time she makes serious money from her art. In 2000, Tate Modern opens and two of Justine’s piece are selected.
Connectedness is the story of the divergence of Justine’s two lives: her art, and the legacy of her one year at art school in Malaga. And how love and a baby pitch her life and art into the unknown. I know Malaga well, so I jumped at the chance to take Justine there. I know the streets she walks in the Old Town, I know the view from the Alcazaba high over the city, I hope I notice the things she as an artist would notice.

[Darran Mclaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a light, entertaining memoir about being part of the YBA scene for 15 years or so. Some people have criticised it for excessive name dropping and being too uncritical, but I don't what they were expecting. Of course it is going to have a lot of name dropping if you are writing about this scene, many of them have become global celebrities. And I don't know why people don't think it is critical enough, the point is he was a part of what writes about if if he didn't like the artists or the work he wouldn't have bothered. It makes it all sound like it was a lot of fun and he defintely paid his dues, living in poverty and uncertainty for several years. I would recommend it if you interested in how London went from being artistically insignficatn to becoming the centre of the art world.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Muir is a perpetual name dropper, self important, but occasionally has some interesting anecdotes about getting pissed.
Reads more like a self indulgent autobiography.
Avoid, unless you come across a time machine and want to know which bar to find him brown nosing the YBA's during the 90's and convince him not to write this book.
Unfortunately, the worst book I have ever read, including the random books I read as a child...

[Sara Cochran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having visited London for the first time during my freshman year of art school, I was quite enamored with the YBAs. Reading the backstage story like this was awesome! I read it in one day and will read it again in future. It's good if you know the artists and art being discussed, but would suck big time to everybody else. Or maybe someone who hates most of this art.

[Jeff Howells · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a snapshot of London from the late 80s through the Britpop years and into the beginning of the new millennium it's ok...unfortunately there is too much 'weren't we cool, nobody has ever been as cool as us' posturing going on. To the extent that you wonder how art ever got made between all the drinking, drug taking and partying...you don't warm to anyone...and surely that's not the point?

[Jono Carney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny, insightful and just a really good look at the phenomenon that was YBA by someone who was actually there. Full of fascinating stories and lovely stories. Well worth a read, even if you don't like the artwork.

[non · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting

[J K · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and clearly very personal insight into the art world of the very early 1990s.

[Mark Glassman · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining trawl through the vacuous drunken massively overrated YBA contingent.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

do you really wanna Live Forever?

hirst, lucas, emin and the odd cameo from jarvis...