New Contemporaries
Encyclopedia
New Contemporaries is an organisation that works to support emerging artists at the beginning of their careers by introducing them to the visual arts sector and to the public through a variety of platforms, including an annual exhibition. Artists, whether still studying or having recently graduated, are given opportunities to make contacts and gain professional experience outside of their educational institutions. For the annual exhibition, artists are invited to submit a portfolio of work, from which a selection is made by a panel of judges. The selection is made by artists and writers, and often the selector will have previously been exhibited in a New Contemporaries show. Founded in 1949 as the 'Young Contemporaries', the exhibition has run annually as a means to provide an impartial and democratic stepping stone from arts education to the professional art sector. Established hierarchies that might otherwise become set within the art school system are able to be assessed without bias through the anonymous selection process. Selectors have in the past included Pablo Bronstein
(2011), Darren K Scott (2009), Michael Landy
(2007), Angus Fairhurst
(2006), Jane and Louise Wilson
(2005), Tacita Dean
(2004), Rebecca Warren
(2003), Sarah Lucas
(2002), Chris Ofili
(2001), Gavin Turk
(2000) and Susan Hiller
(1999).
An annual exhibition for the final selection of New Contemporaries is staged in a leading UK arts venue; in 2010 the annual exhibition was held at the A Foundation in Liverpool, before moving to the Institute of Contemporary Arts
(ICA) in London. The importance of regional impartiality is recognised in the anonymity of the contributor's school, age, and nationality during the selection process and by the annual exhibition having no fixed location. A catalogue is printed to accompany the exhibition each year.
for the British Society of Artists Galleries, was established in 1949 and known as 'Young Contemporaries'. In the foreword to the 1949 exhibition catalogue, Philip Hendy
, then Director of the National Gallery, wrote of his "hope that it is only the first of many. That it may grown into an annual event." The early exhibition gathered much critical and audience attention. Howard Hodgkin recollected that “the most memorable event at the opening of the first show was the speech made by Philip Hendy. With extraordinary generosity and frankness and somehow with a lot of sympathy as well, he compared what he felt to be the bleak but possible heroic fate awaiting us when we left Art School to the cosy, hierarchical life of an Art Historian.”
From 1949 until 1969 the contributors were selected by artists and art specialists, but then in 1969 and 1970 students controlled selection themselves. Notable artists who participated in these early exhibitions include Eduardo Paolozzi
(1958), David Hockney
(1960), Patrick Caulfield
(1961), and Robyn Denny
(1964). Andrew Lambirth wrote in 1986 that “it wasn't until 1969 that the year that the colour cover of the catalogue looked like an Alpine Advertisement for poster paint – that the students decided to take over selection themselves. This controversial move wwas the logical if belated reaction to establishment colonization of the YC. Wasn't the whot supposed to be for the students, by the students?” The 1970 exhibition, held at the Royal Academy
, caused great controversy with one of the events nearly setting fire to the Royal Academy. Other sources claim funding was withdrawn because the organisation had dissolved into strife between college factions. The exhibition was not staged again until 1974.
in 1974, the exhibition was renamed New Contemporaries.
The Guardian reviewed the 1975 show as being “low on razzmatazz and high on endeavour”. William Tucker wrote in the catalogue introduction that “the successful student these days is likely to be persuaded that is he an artist. Nothing could be further from the truch. What the NC should do is enable stuents, for a moment at last as artists, to take public responsibility for what that have made – absolutely... This is not an exhibition of protest, but could become the opportunity for commitment. It is the harder role.”
From 1978, the exhibition had an established exhibition venue in the ICA and a Permanent Committee supported the exhibition management until 1983. The selection of contributors was made by panels of students, divided between the specialisms of painting, sculpture, and performance/film. However, the students soon began to realise that the current format for the exhibition was unsustainable, and many organisers were left with personal debt. In one interesting movement toward complete democratisation, the 1981 committee “in order to encourage a larger entry of works” asked for all submissions to be made in the form of slides and then created a slideshow that could be arranged at will “to give a more complete idea of what is going on in art colleges at the moment.” The final exhibition in this student-lead format, was staged in 1986 with a catalogue which contained a historical introduction (and post-script), to the exhibition by Andrew Lambirth, 'New Contemporaries Past and Present'. This essay also includes a number of published letters from previous contributors such as Brent Irvin, Michael Sandle
, Richard Wentworth
, and Derek Jarman
. Artists who participated in the exhibition during this period include Helen Chadwick
, Anish Kapoor
(both 1977), Antony Gormley
(1978), Mark Wallinger
(1981), Peter Doig
(1982), Dexter Dalwood
(1983), and Catherine Yass
(1984).
commissioned a feasibility report on New Contemporaries to look into the future viability of the exhibition. Published by Richard Shone, who has since become the Chair of a Volunteer Board of Directors, the report proposed a new structure and constitution for the organisation. For the first time, the exhibition was made independent from the art colleges, and supported by professional administration, inviting a panel of selectors each year to pick contributors. The exhibition was relaunched at the ICA in 1989 and toured to four regional centres. From 1989-1994, the exhibition was sponsored by British Telecom and from 2000 is sponsored by Bloomberg
. In 1996, the exhibition was invited to become an aspect of the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art
and has since exhibited in the city every two years. New Contemporaries is also supported by the Arts Council England. Recent participants have included Damien Hirst
, Glen Brown
(both 1989) and Simon Starling
(1994).
Pablo Bronstein
Pablo Bronstein is an artist based in London. He attended Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, at the University of the Arts London, theSlade School of Fine Art, UCL, and graduated from Goldsmiths College of Art....
(2011), Darren K Scott (2009), Michael Landy
Michael Landy
Michael 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...
(2007), Angus Fairhurst
Angus Fairhurst
Angus Fairhurst was an English artist working in installation, photography and video. He was one of the Young British Artists .-Life and work:Angus Fairhurst was born in Pembury, Kent...
(2006), Jane and Louise Wilson
Jane and Louise Wilson
Jane Wilson and Louise Wilson are British artists who work together as a sibling duo. Jane and Louise Wilson's art work is based in video, film and photography...
(2005), Tacita Dean
Tacita Dean
Tacita Dean is an English visual artist who works primarily in film. She is one of the Young British Artists, and was a nominee for the Turner Prize in 1998.-Life and work:...
(2004), Rebecca Warren
Rebecca Warren
Rebecca Warren is a British sculptor, and a nominee for the 2006 Turner Prize.Rebecca Warren was born in Pinhoe. She studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths' College, University of London receiving a BA before taking her MA in Fine Art at the Chelsea College of Art, London...
(2003), 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...
(2002), 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...
(2001), Gavin Turk
Gavin Turk
Gavin 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:...
(2000) and Susan Hiller
Susan Hiller
Susan Hiller is an American-born artist who lives in London, UK. Her art practice encompasses installation, video, photography, performance and writing.-Early Life and Education:...
(1999).
An annual exhibition for the final selection of New Contemporaries is staged in a leading UK arts venue; in 2010 the annual exhibition was held at the A Foundation in Liverpool, before moving to the Institute of Contemporary Arts
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
(ICA) in London. The importance of regional impartiality is recognised in the anonymity of the contributor's school, age, and nationality during the selection process and by the annual exhibition having no fixed location. A catalogue is printed to accompany the exhibition each year.
1949–1970
The first annual exhibition, initiated by Carel WeightCarel Weight
Carel Victor Morlais Weight was an English painter.Weight was born in Paddington in 1908. He studied at the Hammersmith School of Art and Goldsmiths College...
for the British Society of Artists Galleries, was established in 1949 and known as 'Young Contemporaries'. In the foreword to the 1949 exhibition catalogue, Philip Hendy
Philip Hendy
Sir Philip Anstiss Hendy was a British art curator who worked both in Britain and overseas, notably the United States. In 1923 he began his career in art administration as an Assistant Keeper and lecturer at the Wallace Collection in London, despite his having no formal training in art history...
, then Director of the National Gallery, wrote of his "hope that it is only the first of many. That it may grown into an annual event." The early exhibition gathered much critical and audience attention. Howard Hodgkin recollected that “the most memorable event at the opening of the first show was the speech made by Philip Hendy. With extraordinary generosity and frankness and somehow with a lot of sympathy as well, he compared what he felt to be the bleak but possible heroic fate awaiting us when we left Art School to the cosy, hierarchical life of an Art Historian.”
From 1949 until 1969 the contributors were selected by artists and art specialists, but then in 1969 and 1970 students controlled selection themselves. Notable artists who participated in these early exhibitions include Eduardo Paolozzi
Eduardo Paolozzi
Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi, KBE, RA , was a Scottish sculptor and artist. He was a major figure in the international art sphere, while, working on his own interpretation and vision of the world. Paolozzi investigated how we can fit into the modern world to resemble our fragmented civilization...
(1958), David Hockney
David Hockney
David Hockney, CH, RA, is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer, who is based in Bridlington, Yorkshire and Kensington, London....
(1960), Patrick Caulfield
Patrick Caulfield
Patrick Joseph Caulfield, CBE, RA was an English painter and printmaker known for his bold canvases, which often incorporated elements of Photorealism within a pared down scene.-Life and work:...
(1961), and Robyn Denny
Robyn Denny
Robyn Denny, born in Abinger, Surrey in 1930, is one of a group who transformed British art in the late 1950s, leading it into the international mainstream. He studied at the Royal College of Art in the mid-1950s, among a generation that included Richard Smith and Alan Green...
(1964). Andrew Lambirth wrote in 1986 that “it wasn't until 1969 that the year that the colour cover of the catalogue looked like an Alpine Advertisement for poster paint – that the students decided to take over selection themselves. This controversial move wwas the logical if belated reaction to establishment colonization of the YC. Wasn't the whot supposed to be for the students, by the students?” The 1970 exhibition, held at the Royal Academy
Royal 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 great controversy with one of the events nearly setting fire to the Royal Academy. Other sources claim funding was withdrawn because the organisation had dissolved into strife between college factions. The exhibition was not staged again until 1974.
1974–1986
In 1973, tutors from some London colleges - including Gillian Ayres, Paul Huxley and William Tucker – grouped together to restore the exhibition. They took a year to draw up a new constitution, arrange a willing venue, and organise the selection process. Taking place at the Camden Arts CentreCamden Arts Centre
Camden Arts Centre is a contemporary visual art gallery, dedicated to engaging living artists from across the world. Positioning the artist at the centre of the programme, Camden Arts Centre strives to involve the public in the ideas and work of today's artists.The exhibition and education...
in 1974, the exhibition was renamed New Contemporaries.
The Guardian reviewed the 1975 show as being “low on razzmatazz and high on endeavour”. William Tucker wrote in the catalogue introduction that “the successful student these days is likely to be persuaded that is he an artist. Nothing could be further from the truch. What the NC should do is enable stuents, for a moment at last as artists, to take public responsibility for what that have made – absolutely... This is not an exhibition of protest, but could become the opportunity for commitment. It is the harder role.”
From 1978, the exhibition had an established exhibition venue in the ICA and a Permanent Committee supported the exhibition management until 1983. The selection of contributors was made by panels of students, divided between the specialisms of painting, sculpture, and performance/film. However, the students soon began to realise that the current format for the exhibition was unsustainable, and many organisers were left with personal debt. In one interesting movement toward complete democratisation, the 1981 committee “in order to encourage a larger entry of works” asked for all submissions to be made in the form of slides and then created a slideshow that could be arranged at will “to give a more complete idea of what is going on in art colleges at the moment.” The final exhibition in this student-lead format, was staged in 1986 with a catalogue which contained a historical introduction (and post-script), to the exhibition by Andrew Lambirth, 'New Contemporaries Past and Present'. This essay also includes a number of published letters from previous contributors such as Brent Irvin, Michael Sandle
Michael Sandle
Michael Sandle RA is a British sculptor and artist, "widely recognised as one of the finest sculptors in the world". His works include several public sculptures, many relating to themes of war, death or destruction...
, Richard Wentworth
Richard Wentworth
Richard Wentworth CBE is a British artist, curator and teacher. He is Professor of Sculpture at The Royal College of Art, London.-Life and career:Wentworth was born in Samoa—then a province of New Zealand—in 1947...
, and Derek Jarman
Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
. Artists who participated in the exhibition during this period include Helen Chadwick
Helen Chadwick
Helen Chadwick was a British conceptual artist.-Life and work:Chadwick studied at Croydon College of Art, The Faculty of Arts and Architecture Brighton Polytechnic and then at the Chelsea School of Art....
, Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor CBE RA is a British sculptor of Indian birth. Born in Mumbai , Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to study art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art and Design.He represented Britain in the XLIV Venice...
(both 1977), Antony Gormley
Antony Gormley
Antony Mark David Gormley OBE RA is a British sculptor. His best known works include the Angel of the North, a public sculpture in the North of England, commissioned in 1995 and erected in February 1998, Another Place on Crosby Beach near Liverpool, and Event Horizon, a multi-part site...
(1978), Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger
Mark 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...
(1981), Peter Doig
Peter Doig
Peter Doig is a contemporary artist born in Scotland. In 2007, a painting of Doig's, entitled White Canoe, sold at Sotheby's for $11.3 million, then an auction record for a living European artist.-Early life:...
(1982), Dexter Dalwood
Dexter Dalwood
Dexter Dalwood is an artist based in London. He attended Humphry Davy School in his early life. Dalwood received his BA from Central St Martins College of Art, London, in 1985...
(1983), and Catherine Yass
Catherine Yass
Catherine Yass is an English artist.Catherine Yass was born in 1963 in London and in her early years lived in Hampstead. She later studied at the Slade School of Art, London and then at Hochschule der Künste, Berlin...
(1984).
1988–Present
In 1987 the Arts Council of Great BritainArts Council of Great Britain
The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. The Arts Council of Great Britain was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England , the Scottish Arts Council, and the Arts Council of Wales...
commissioned a feasibility report on New Contemporaries to look into the future viability of the exhibition. Published by Richard Shone, who has since become the Chair of a Volunteer Board of Directors, the report proposed a new structure and constitution for the organisation. For the first time, the exhibition was made independent from the art colleges, and supported by professional administration, inviting a panel of selectors each year to pick contributors. The exhibition was relaunched at the ICA in 1989 and toured to four regional centres. From 1989-1994, the exhibition was sponsored by British Telecom and from 2000 is sponsored by Bloomberg
Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately held financial software, media, and data company. Bloomberg makes up one third of the $16 billion global financial data market with estimated revenue of $6.9 billion. Bloomberg L.P...
. In 1996, the exhibition was invited to become an aspect of the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art
Liverpool Biennial
Liverpool Biennial is a British international festival of contemporary art held in Liverpool. The festival comprises the International Exhibition, the John Moores Painting Prize, the Bloomberg New Contemporaries Exhibition and the Independents Biennial....
and has since exhibited in the city every two years. New Contemporaries is also supported by the Arts Council England. Recent participants have included 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,...
, Glen Brown
Glen Brown
Glen Brown , also known as 'God Son' and 'The Rhythm Master', is a Jamaican singer, musician, and record producer, working primarily in the genres of reggae and dub...
(both 1989) and Simon Starling
Simon Starling
Simon Starling is an English conceptual artist and was the winner of the 2005 Turner Prize. He lives and works in Copenhagen and Berlin, and is a professor of art at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main.-Biography:...
(1994).