The “Made in Britain” exhibition brings to Albania 111 artworks including paintings, sculptures, graphs, photographs, installations, part of the British Council collection, belonging to 1980-2010 period
TIRANA, May 30 – More than a hundred works by some of the most renowned British contemporary artists will be displayed to the Albanian public for two months at the National Arts Gallery in Tirana. The “Made in Britain” exhibition brings to Albania 111 artworks including paintings, sculptures, graphs, photographs, installations, part of the British Council collection, belonging to 1980-2010 period. The exhibition reflects the changes the British society has undergone during this period and the educative and influential role visual arts have played in its transformation, says the National Gallery in a statement.
Works by 29 artists such as Tomma Abts, Phillip Allen, Keith Arnatt, Helen Chadwick, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Adam Chodzko, will be displayed to the Albanian public, most of them having their first display in Albania.
The exhibition scheduled to remain open from June 1 to August 8 will open on Friday with a public lecture by Matt Franks, one of the participating British artists who will elaborate on his creativity and contemporary sculpture. This event comes after the successful display of “Albania Fantastica” exhibition featuring 60 paintings by late renowned Albanian painter Ibrahim Kodra.
The British Council Collection is one of the most comprehensive holdings of modern and contemporary British art in the world, containing some 8,500 arts pieces by over 1,650 British artists. During the period since 1980 which the exhibition covers, enormous shifts have taken place in the role that art plays in British society. From Gilbert & George’s Intellectual Depression (1980) to Gary Hume’s Sister Troop (2009), this exhibition tells the story of how art has mapped and reflected these changes – and indeed been at the very forefront of social change itself, according to British Council Greece.
Contemporary art in the UK has undeniably taken on a more socially engaged position in British society over the past three decades. Some of this shift can be attributed to the arrival of a new, entrepreneurial and ambitious generation of artists in the early 1990s, collectively known as the YBAs (Young British Artists) and including artists such as Michael Landy, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas.
Other factors, such as the introduction of the Turner Prize in 1984 (the first prize to be awarded to young contemporary artists in the UK); the opening of Tate Modern in 2000 (the first dedicated public gallery for modern and contemporary art in the UK); the elision of art, advertising and the creative industries, particularly following the launch of the Saatchi Gallery in 1985; and the abolition of admission charges to UK public galleries and museums in 2001, have all played their part in bringing contemporary art to far larger audiences than ever before – often audiences with no prior experience or knowledge of the visual arts.
