A look at the origins of the Young British Artists in the art schools of the mid-80s, a shocking and provocative movement which would culminate in the notorious 1997 exhibition Sensation.
In the 1990s, young artists, musicians and creatives use the recession in Britain to their advantage, putting on their own shows in abandoned spaces and warehouses and moving to the run-down and deserted East End of London to live, work and play.
In September 1997, the Royal Academy puts on an iconoclastic exhibition at the heart of the art establishment – Sensation. It causes a sensation itself, with 300,000 people flocking to see Charles Saatchi's taboo-breaking private collection of artworks by a new generation of young British contemporary artists. Inspiring protests, resignations and tabloid column inches, it rocks the art world to its core while cementing contemporary art at the heart of public consciousness.
