EXHIBITION REVIEW: "YBA AND BEYOND" AT THE NATIONAL ART CENTRE TOKYO

Gilbert and George's  "Naked Eye" (1994) overlooking Dinos and Jake Chapman's "Disasters of War" (1993) (installation view)

It might seem odd to fill up one of Tokyo biggest and best exhibition spaces with slightly past-its-sell-by date “contemporary” art from a small, rainy island half way around the world. But that is exactly what the NACT has decided to do with YBA AND BEYOND: BRITISH ART IN THE 90s FROM THE TATE COLLECTION.

Part of the reason for this, according to one of the key curators Yukako Yamada, is that Japan in 2026 is very much in a similar position to Great Britain in the Thatcherite 80s! Yes, Sanae Takaichi could literally be Japan's Margaret Thatcher (hopefully with less destruction of the industrial base!).

"The issues raised in this exhibition—social division, multiculturalism, gender, and critiques of patriarchy—are all extremely important themes in Japan in 2026," Yamada lists. "I believe they are also major areas of interest for contemporary Japanese artists. There is great significance in learning about the innovativeness and universality of the approach taken in Britain more than 30 years ago."

Elizabeth Wright's "BSA Tour of Britain Racer Enlarged to 135%" (1996-97) and Michael Craig-Martin's "Knowing" (1996) (installation view)

Also, for many Japanese, British culture has always struck deeper than that from Japan's more obvious "cultural coloniser," the USA. I mean, Japan is full not only of afternoon-tea fetishists and Harry Potter fans, but also Oasis and Blur afficionados. Also, the whole notion of "Cool Japan," first trotted out by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in the 2010s, had it origins in the "Cool Britannia" branding splashed on the UK and its protean culture in the Blair years.

"Music, fashion, and movies from that time were popular in Japan as well," Yamada adds, "and I think many people were influenced by them. 

The show begins with some big statements from artists who preceded and overlapped with the YBA movement (Young British Artists), most notably Francis Bacon's "Second Version of Triptych 1944" (1988), a late rendition of one of his key works produced in the 1940s, and Gilbert and George's "Naked Eye" (1994). 

Many of the YBA artists featured at the show are now big names in the art world, and even household names back in the UK. They are also a lot older! Damian Hearst is represented by his "The Acquired Inability to Escape" (1991) which wittily references the corrosive power of habit to define and destroy us. While Tracy Emin is represented by the bleak sluttery (or victimhood) of her video installation "Why I Never Became a Disco Dancer" (1995). 

"The Acquired Inability to Escape" (1991) by Damian Hirst (installation view)

Often their fame, such as it is, is down to the degree to which they successfully "triggered" Britain’s media. Indeed, the "edgy art" of the YBA and the fake social conservatism of Fleet Street (the collective noun for the UK press) fed off each other in a symbiotic way that is illustrative and precursory of the "woke" vs "right-wing populism" dynamic that we see playing out on our increasingly hysterical social media.

Another key reference point, according to Yamada, is a kind of DIY punk spirit:

"If we are to highlight the artistic achievements of the artists discussed here, I think it boils down to the fact that they approached various social issues in a very relatable and inexpensive way, using materials different from those of previous British artists, and that this approach was also important from an international perspective."

A good example of this is Angele Bulloch's "West Ham - Sculpture for Football Songs" (1998) which seems to be cooked up with a few lighting fixtures purchased from IKEA. More aesthetically impressive is Cordelia Parker's "Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View" (1991), which uses a single light source and the shadows cast by a web of junk to create something almost magical. 

"Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View" (1991) by Cordelia Parker (installation view)

To those ready to be triggered by the LGBTQ agenda of Derek Jarman's quaintly old-fashioned expressive painting "Ataxia - AIDs is Fun" (1993) or the amorality and paedophilia of Tracy Emin's sexual confessions, the art may seem to have something of an "elitist" or even "globalist" agenda, as if designed to "undermine" what is quixotically referred to on the populist right as "traditional British values." But for YBA and its successors the key point was to create an artistic ecosystem outside the elite structures of the pre-existing artworld.

"It is very important that they curated and held exhibitions themselves, creating their own venues for presentation," Yamada explains.

Although the timeline and cashflow may be debateable, it was only after they set up this "punkish" network that elements of the elite were brought on board, most notably (and totally ironically) in the guise of the Saatchis, much of whose money came directly from their work in advertising for Thatcher's Conservative and its "performative" brand of social conservativism.

Cigarette Tits (Idealized Smokers Chest II) 1999 by Sarah Lucas (installation view)

Even today, much of the art concocted back in London in the 1980s and 90s has the power to shock and quite frankly offend. It is definitely not the Paddington Beat / Peter Rabbit version of Britain that so many Japanese prefer. But the key point is that the YBA and all that it spawned is a fascinating and multi-faceted story, even if the occasional sick bag is recommended for the more sensitive among us.

EXHIBTION INFO