Sarah Lucas facts for kids

Sarah Lucas (born in 1962) is a famous English artist. She is known for being part of the "Young British Artists" group, which started in 1988. Sarah Lucas often uses jokes and clever visual tricks in her art. She creates amazing pieces using photos, sculptures, collage (which is like art made from different bits stuck together), and everyday items she finds.

Exploring Sarah Lucas's Art

Early Life and Learning

Sarah Lucas was born in London, England, in 1962. She left school when she was 16 years old. Later, she decided to study art. She went to The Working Men's College from 1982 to 1983. Then she studied at the London College of Printing from 1983 to 1984. Finally, she attended Goldsmiths College from 1984 to 1987. She earned her degree in Fine Art in 1987.

Sarah grew up in Holloway, north London. Her father was a milkman, and her mother was a part-time gardener and cleaner. After school, she even hitchhiked around Europe. She was looking for what she wanted to do with her life.

How Sarah Lucas Creates Art

Sarah Lucas was part of a big art show in 1988 called Freeze. Other artists like Damien Hirst were also in this show. In 1990, Sarah helped organize another show called the East Country Yard Show. She also showed her own art there.

Her first two solo art shows in 1992 were called The Whole Joke. For six months in 1993, Sarah Lucas and her friend, artist Tracey Emin, opened a shop. It was called The Shop and was in east London. They made and sold art there, like printed mugs and T-shirts with funny sayings.

Sarah Lucas often uses everyday things in her art. For example, she has used freshly cooked fried eggs! She turns these ordinary items into artworks that are funny and make you think. She is also famous for her "Artist as Subject" approach. This means she made many self-portraits (pictures of herself).

Sarah Lucas. Self-Portraits 1990 – 1998 (1999)

In 2006, Sarah Lucas created a life-size bronze sculpture. It was a horse and cart called Perceval. You can find it in Cullum Street, London. A writer from The Guardian newspaper once said that Sarah Lucas was "the wildest of the Young British Artists." In 1996, the BBC made a TV show about her called Two Melons and a Stinking Fish.

Major Art Shows and Exhibitions

Sarah Lucas had her first solo art show in 1992. It was at City Racing, a gallery run by artists in south London. Her first solo show in New York was in 1995.

Her art has been shown in many important museums. These include the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam and the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. She has also had shows in less common places. For example, she used an empty office building for her show The Law in 1997. She also used an old postal building in Berlin for Beautiness in 1999. In 2000, she created an art display at the Freud Museum.

Sarah Lucas's work has been part of big surveys of new British art. These include Brilliant!—New Art From London in 1995. Her art was also in Sensation at the Royal Academy in 1997. In 2003, she took part in the 50th Venice Biennale, a huge international art event. She also had a three-person show at Tate Britain in 2004. From 2005 to 2006, Tate Liverpool held a big show of her work.

In 2012, Sarah Lucas helped organize an exhibition called Free. It was at the Southbank Centre. This show displayed art made by prisoners and former offenders. The theme was "50" because it was the 50th anniversary of the Koestler Trust, which helps these artists. Sarah Lucas was also 50 years old at the time.

The Whitechapel Gallery in East London had a special show of her work in 2013. In 2015, Sarah Lucas represented Britain at the 56th Venice Biennale with her show SCREAM DADDIO.

In 2018, The New Museum in America showed her art for the first time in a big way. The exhibition was called "Sarah Lucas: Au Naturel". For this show, she made new sculptures. One was This Jaguar's Going to Heaven (2018). It was a car cut in half with the back part burned. Another was VOX POP DORIS (2018). These were two huge, eleven-foot-tall platform boots made of concrete. This exhibition later traveled to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.

The National Gallery of Australia showed her work in 2021-22. It included Installation of Project 1: Sarah Lucas and her early self-portraits, Eating a Banana. In 2023, her work was shown in the "Big Women" exhibition in Colchester. A new exhibition of her art also opened at the Tate Britain in September 2023.

The Young British Artists Group

The Young British Artists (YBAs) are also called the Brit artists or Britart. They are a group of British artists who started showing their work together in 1988. Damien Hirst helped organize this group. Other artists in the group include Angus Fairhurst, Tracey Emin, and Gary Hume.

This group became famous for being very open to new materials and ways of making art. They were also known for using "shock tactics" to get people's attention. Their first show, Freeze, included art from Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst. They were all still students at Goldsmiths College of Art at the time. The name "Young British Artists" was first used in 1992. The short name "YBA" became popular in 1996. These names became like a brand for the group. They showed the "can do" spirit of their art.

Images for kids

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  Sarah Lucas. Self-Portraits 1990 – 1998 (1999)