Plastic: English plastic played a relatively independent role in European development in the 20th century. H. Moore, one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century, left behind a rich figurative and abstract sculptural work and gave sculpture a significant impetus.
Epstein, who belonged to the London avant-garde, vorticism, found v. a. with portraits and religious figures recognition. In the early 1950s, R. Butler, L. Chadwick and K. Armitage emerged, as did W. Turnbull and E. Paolozzi. After tentative figurative beginnings, A. Caro began in 1960 with expansive abstract steel sculptures without a base and thus became the focus of the New Generation and Saint Martin’s School in London. Him knüpften P. King and W. Tucker on. K. Martindeveloped kinetic objects from his mobiles from the 1950s.With his collages and robot-like sculptures, Paolozzi became one of the earliest artists of Pop Art. A. Jones counts. A figurative realism derived from Pop Art remained current until the 1980s (direction of »superhumanism«). Against the academic formalism Caros, Kings et al. The actions of J. Latham, the yielding organic sculptures and the room installations of his students B. Flanagan, T. Cragg and Bill Woodrow (* 1948) were directed towards abstract sculptors. R. Long is considered the most important European representative of the plastic-related land art. International recognition found, among other things. also A. Gormley , J. Opie and Richard Deacon (* 1949).
Painting: English painting only gained importance for pan-European art relatively late in the 20th century. The short-lived movement of Vorticism was based not only on sculptors, but also among others. the painters W. Lewis and the v. a. as a teacher influential D. Bomberg. S. Spencer and P. Nash also belong to this generation. B. Nicholson and V. Pasmore advocated early, independent constructivism in the 1930s. As in the other arts, there was a boom in English painting in the 1960s. G. Sutherland’s compositions show a concise figure style trained in surrealism. F. Bacon’s pictures are characterized by an expressionistically exaggerated representation of reality. The work of Bridget Riley, focused on the reproduction of abstract visual perception is an important contribution to Op Art. A specifically English variant of Pop Art is represented by R. Hamilton, Paolozzi, P. Blake, D. Hockney, A. Jones, P. Philips, J. Tilson and P. Caulfield. The American R. B. Kitaj belonged to them for a time. Abstract painting and abstract expressionism (A. Davie, Peter Lanyon, * 1918, † 1964). M. Morley, who switched from abstract painting to photorealism in the 1960s, turned to neo-expressionism in the 1980s. Abstract painters of different intentions are R. Danny, H. Hodgkin, Alan Charlton (* 1948) and Alan Green (* 1932, † 2003). F. Auerbach, L. Freud and Leon Kossof (* 1926) are representatives of expressive, figurative and impasto painting.
According to fashionissupreme.com, the English concept art contributed to the expansion of the concept of art, among other things. the group Art & Language, which was philosophically and linguistically oriented, and Michael Craig-Martin (* 1941), who worked as a teacher at the art school Goldsmiths College in London. Bruce McLean (* 1944), Latham, Stuart Brisley (* 1933), M. Boyle, Joan Hills and Gilbert & George drew attention to themselves in the field of film and video art in the field of performance, photo and video art Malcolm Le Grice (* 1940), Anthony McCall (* 1946) and William Raban (* 1948). Deacon, J. Opie and Rachel Whiteread deal with sculptural issues. Following on from the Concept Art of the 1970s, an art movement characterized by the rejection of the established world of goods and pop culture, existential content of personal or overall social relevance and shock effect on the viewer has been established since the late 1980s, whose representatives the joint training at Goldsmiths College in London connects and who have been operating very successfully internationally up to the present under the label “Young British Artists” (YBA). These include D. Hirst, who uses media mechanisms to raise awareness of existential problems, as well as cross-genre artists such as Sarah Lucas (* 1962), Tracey Emin (* 1963), the brothers J. and D. Chapman and the artist duo Tim Noble (* 1966) and Sue Webster (* 1967). The sculptural works by Grenville Davey (* 1961) move between everyday objects and self-referentiality; The installation and performance artist Anya Gallaccio (* 1963) works with natural materials (food, etc.) that have been alienated. In the field of abstract painting, among others, Gary Hume (* 1962), v. a. with multi-part »door and window pictures«, and Ian Davenport (* 1966) with color structure analyzes. Jenny Saville (* 1970) gives figurative painting new impulses with large-format female nudes that contradict the current ideal of beauty. Film and video art are among others. represented by S. McQueen and Gillian Wearing (* 1963).
Photography: In the 20th century, C. Beaton, successor to Norman Parkinson (* 1913, † 1990) as court photographer of the British royal family, became internationally known with portraits and fashion photos, as did David Hamilton (* 1933, † 2016) with lyrically sensitive photographs of girls and files as well as David Bailey (* 1938) with fashion, nudes and portraits. In the 1970s, J. Hilliard began to work with the medium of photography in the sense of Concept Art. Critical documentary photography is a.o. represented by M. Parr. New impulses also came from the German W. Tillmans, who has been working in London since the mid-1990s.
