Jan 5, 2010

The Oxford Dictionary of Art | Young Contemporaries

Young Contemporaries.
Exhibition of works by British art students held in London since 1949 on a roughly annual basis (lack of funds or organization—they are generally arranged by the students themselves—has sometimes prevented the shows taking place). The first Young Contemporaries exhibition was held at the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA Galleries). Other venues have included the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and some of the exhibitions have toured the provinces. The most famous Young Contemporaries show was that of 1961, when British Pop art first appeared in force in the work of Derek Boshier, David Hockney, Allen Jones, R. B. Kitaj, and Peter Phillips, all of them students or former students at the Royal College of Art. In 1974 the name was changed to ‘New Contemporaries’.