High Art Lite: The rise and fall of young British art (revised and expanded edition) By Julian Stallabrass [Book review]

With the so-called young British artists (yBas) now past their youth and with young British art's loss of the lustre of novelty it arguably possessed a decade ago, the revision and expansion of High Art Lite is certainly timely. First published in 1999, Stallabrass' book was – and remains – one of the few considered, scholarly, and powerfully argued assessments of the phenomenon that the author branded ‘high art lite’, evoking ‘the idea of a fast food version of the less digestible art that preceded it’. This revised edition is inflected by the author's satisfaction that his original damning evaluation of the then young British artists was correct; or rather, that many critics and art world operatives who at the time of the first publication were ‘fans’ have since swapped their enthusiasm for scepticism, even disapproval. Nevertheless, Stallabrass is (mostly) careful to distinguish between [...]

Book review of
High Art Lite: The rise and fall of young British art (Revised and expanded edition). Julian Stallabrass, 2006. ISBN 9781844670857.