Tate Britain Explores '90S Art, Fashion, And Counterculture

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Tate Britain in London has opened“The 90s: Art and Fashion,” an exhibition showcasing nearly 70 creatives who defined the art, photography, and fashion of the 1990s. The museum describes this as the first exhibition to delve into the decade's cultural landscape. Editor and stylist Edward Enninful curated the selection, focusing on Britain's cultural identity from that era.

The exhibition begins in a post-Thatcher Britain, marked by economic recession and a reevaluation of societal taboos around sexuality. Wolfgang Tillmans's 1993 photograph, Suzanne & Lutz, white dress, army skirt, with its distinctive clipped corners, captures the era's carefree androgyny. Pre-digital print publications such as i-D, Dazed & Confused, and The Face are highlighted for shaping counterculture. Photographer Corinne Day reflected on the late 1980s supermodel era, stating,“Fashion magazines had been selling sex and glamour for far too long.” Her 1993 C-print of Kate Moss in lace-trimmed underwear, a thin gold cross, and a pink tank top, embodies a raw, stripped-back aesthetic, similar to Juergen Teller's 1998 image, Young Pink Kate, London, which fronts the exhibition poster. Day's 1993 magazine spread featuring a model shot in her own flat, without a hair or makeup team, emphasizes spontaneity over excessive styling. Nearby, Eileen Perrier's 1998 series on the Afro Hair and Beauty Show spotlights Black youth culture and style, an aspect largely underrepresented at the time, with the exceptions of models Naomi Campbell and Alek Wek. Sam Taylor-Johnson's self-portrait, showing her in unbuttoned jeans and a T-shirt that reads“FUCK SUCK SPANK WANK,” exemplifies the decade's bold irreverence.

The exhibition continues with a Stella McCartney silk satin camisole from her 1995 graduate show at Central Saint Martins. Below it, an Ellen von Unwerth photo from 1994 depicts Naomi Campbell shaving her legs on a toilet. The theme of the transfigured body recurs with butt-imprint wallpaper by Abigail Lane, created between 1992 and 1997, and Jenny Saville and Glen Luchford's collaborative 1995-1996 photograph of Saville's naked body pressed against plexiglass. Tracey Emin's 1998 neon artwork, positioned high on a wall with a lilac glow, humorously asks,“Is anal sex legal” /“Is legal sex anal.” Another room explores the hedonistic nightlife that emerged after the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act banned unofficial gatherings, showing revelers at clandestine raves. Jon Shard's 1993-1995 photographs of Flesh, a monthly queer event in Manchester, and Poulomi Desai's 1990-1994 shots from Shakti South Asian LGBTQ+ meetings and Bhangra discos highlight niche scenes. Tim Smith's 1990 photos document an“afternoon club” for British Asian teenagers, offering a glimpse into unsanctioned entertainment that challenged conventional norms.

Dramatic Alexander McQueen designs follow, including a 1997 calfskin jacket with impala horns and an armor-like corset crafted for Givenchy in 2000 from resin and silver-plated metal. McQueen famously declared,“I want people to be afraid of the women I dress.” Photographer Sophy Rickett's 1995 series“Pissing Women” presents a similar sense of provocation, depicting women urinating publicly and gleefully. A shift to minimalism and androgyny is seen in David Sims's stark portraits of close-cropped models. Hussein Chalayan's 2000 mahogany wood coffee table that transforms into a table skirt, created with designer Paul Topen, symbolizes the displacement from his Cypriot heritage. His Airmail dress in Tyvek, designed to be sold folded flat inside an envelope, bears the inscription,“both sides can be written on / biro, felt tip, marker.” Across the room, Damien Hirst's 1993 work, Harmless... Two Similar Swimming Forms in Endless Motion (Broken), features two sharks suspended in formaldehyde within a circular metal frame. The Young British Artists (YBAs) are represented sparingly, with works by Emin, Rachel Whiteread, Chris Ofili, and Jake and Dinos Chapman.

A dedicated gallery explores“Black excellence,” featuring Jason Evans's portraits of Black men in West London, presented in upper-class styles to offer a“new vision of Britain” that challenges traditional white, wealthy stereotypes. Ozwald Boateng, who opened the first Black-owned boutique on Savile Row in 1995, infused classical British tailoring with vibrant colors inspired by his Ghanaian origins, showcased through two mohair single-breasted suit jackets in red and teal. The final section, which aims to question diversity by refracting Britain's past, feels disconnected from the present. It includes silhouettes by Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano, who are noted for borrowing from history and diverse cultures, remixing ideas of style and class. A caption for Galliano mentions that“his later career has been profoundly affected by his personal conduct.” Yinka Shonibare's 2001 installation, The Swing (after Fragonard), places a headless, costumed mannequin on a swing amidst artificial foliage, echoing Jean-Honoré Fragonard's 18th-century painting (which is approximately 5 kilometers away at the Wallace Collection). The figure wears wax fabric, referencing colonial textile routes between Indonesia, the Netherlands, the U.K., and West Africa. The accompanying text states that“aristocratic leisure and luxury was made possible by imperial wealth.” The exhibition, which runs through February 14, 2027, is located at Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. While commendable for featuring underrepresented BIPOC artists, the exhibition feels unfocused and misses opportunities to connect the 1990s to contemporary perceptions, particularly by omitting cinema and music from its multidisciplinary scope.

We previously reported:

Tate Britain's new exhibition,“The 90s: Art and Fashion,” opened with a celebrity gathering but has garnered starkly contrasting reviews from critics.

London's art market sees renewed interest in the Cool Britannia era, fueled by a Tate Britain exhibition, significant auction sales, and diverse perspectives

Source: Observer Arts

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