Michael Landy
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Michael Landy (born 1963) is one of the
Young British Artists The Young British Artists, or YBAs—also referred to as Brit artists and Britart—is a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London in 1988. Many of the YBA artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Golds ...
(YBAs). He is best known for the performance piece installation '' Break Down'' (2001), in which he destroyed all his possessions, and for the ''Art Bin'' project (2010) at the South London Gallery. On 29 May 2008, Landy was elected a member of the
Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...
in London.


Early life and works

Landy was born in London. He first studied art in
Loughton Loughton () is a suburban town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. The town borders Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell, Chingford, and Buckhurst Hill, and lies north-east of Charing Cross. For statistical purposes ...
and
Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood (borough), Charnwood Borough of Leicestershire, England; it is the administrative centre of Charnwood Borough Council. At the United Kingdom 2021 census, the town's built-up area had a popula ...
, then at Goldsmiths College in London, having been inspired to take up art professionally after having a picture selected for display on the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
television art program Take Hart. After graduating from Goldsmiths in 1988, he exhibited in the '' Freeze'' exhibition, organised by
Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist and art collector. He was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingdom's richest ...
—an exhibition which first brought together a group of artists that would later become known as the
Young British Artists The Young British Artists, or YBAs—also referred to as Brit artists and Britart—is a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London in 1988. Many of the YBA artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Golds ...
. In 1990, Landy exhibited in East Country Yard with several of the artists from ''Freeze''. His first solo exhibition was ''Market'' (1990), an installation comprising numerous empty market stalls. Like much of his later work it was intended as a comment on
consumerism Consumerism is a socio-cultural and economic phenomenon that is typical of industrialized societies. It is characterized by the continuous acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing quantities. In contemporary consumer society, the ...
and society. In 1992, Landy started an association with Karsten Schubert by making ''Closing Down Sale'' for his gallery, an installation made up of a number of objects in shopping trolleys labelled "BARGAIN" and recorded announcements encouraging visitors to buy. The work was intended as a comment on the commodification of art, and might be seen as a precursor of sorts to ''Break Down'', a work which produced no salable objects, except an edition of inventories (books) listing all destroyed items. Before ''Break Down'', Landy's best-known work was ''Scrapheap Services'' (1995–1996), which featured a fictitious cleaning company which sought to change society by way of "a minority of people being discarded". Promotional videos were made for the company and a large number of cut-out men were made from old magazines to be swept up and destroyed. This installation typifies the YBAs' interests in transforming the mundane into art, and recontextualisation. Its visual impact on one level is a typical industrial event, yet the gallery environment and bright red figures, along with the sinister irony of the title, is intended to force the viewer to address issues of humanity and consumerism. In 1997, work which Landy had previously sold to
Charles Saatchi Charles Saatchi ( ; ; born 9 June 1943) is an Iraqi-British businessman and the co-founder, with his brother Maurice, of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. The brothers led the business – the world's largest advertising agency in the 19 ...
was included in the
Sensation exhibition ''Sensation'' was an exhibition of the collection of contemporary art owned by Charles Saatchi, including many works by Young British Artists (YBAs), which first took place 18 September – 28 December 1997 at the Royal Academy of Arts in Londo ...
at the
Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...
in London. This show later toured Berlin and New York, but Landy's work was somewhat overshadowed by some of the other more outrageous artworks.


''Break Down''

'' Break Down'', the work which put him in the public eye, was held in February 2001 at an old branch of the clothes store C&A on
Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running between Marble Arch and Tottenham Court Road via Oxford Circus. It marks the notional boundary between the areas of Fitzrovia and Marylebone to t ...
in London (C&A had recently ceased trading, and the shop had been emptied). Landy gathered together all his possessions, ranging from postage stamps to his
car A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...
, and including all his clothes and works of art by himself and others, painstakingly catalogued all 7,227 of them in detail, and then destroyed all in public. The process of destruction was done on something resembling an
assembly line An assembly line, often called ''progressive assembly'', is a manufacturing process where the unfinished product moves in a direct line from workstation to workstation, with parts added in sequence until the final product is completed. By mechan ...
in a
mass production Mass production, also known as mass production, series production, series manufacture, or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines ...
factory, with ten workers reducing each item to its basic materials and then shredding them. The exhibition was a joint commission from ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' newspaper and
Artangel Artangel is a London-based arts organisation founded in 1985 by Roger Took. Directed since 1991 by James Lingwood and Michael Morris, it has commissioned and produced a string of notable site-specific works, plus several projects for TV, film, r ...
, and attracted around 45,000 visitors. At the end of the process all that was left was bags of rubbish, none of which was sold or exhibited in any form. An edition of inventory books listing all destroyed items was available to buy when exiting through the gift shop. Landy made no money as a direct result of ''Break Down'', and following it had no possessions at all.


Later works

Landy made little art in the year following ''Break Down'' before returning with a solo show in late 2002, entitled ''Nourishment''. The exhibition consisted of a series of detailed etchings of weeds, rendered in the traditional style of
botanical Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
draughtsmanship. The intricate detailing is reported to have resulted in lasting eye damage for Landy. In 2003, Landy was selected to chair the judging panel for the Beck's Futures art prize. In 2008,
Ridinghouse Ridinghouse was founded in 1995 as a British book publisher specialising in art. Company history Ridinghouse was established by Karsten Schubert (with Charles Asprey and Thomas Dane) as a stand-alone publisher alongside its founders' gallery a ...
published ''Michael Landy: Everything Must Go!'', Landy's first monograph, which brings together over 20 years of the artist's work for the first time. It was in this year that Landy was elected a member of the Royal Academy. Landy's ''Art Bin'' installation for the South London Gallery in February–March 2010 was described by the artist as "a monument to creative failure." A large transparent skip was installed at the gallery, into which he invited the public to throw art work with which they were dissatisfied. Artists and collectors were invited to apply to dispose of works of art via a dedicated website. In 2016, Museum Tinguely Basel curated Landy's first retrospective exhibition titled "Michael Landy. Out of Order". It spanned his entire career, bringing together works from ''Break Down'', ''Credit Card Destroying Machine'', and ''Saints Alive'' among many others.


Personal life

Landy's partner is fellow British artist Gillian Wearing. He was appointed Commander of the
Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
(CBE) in the
2021 New Year Honours The 2021 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...
for services to art.


See also

*'' What Do Artists Do All Day?''


References


External links


Artist Project – Hello Weed
Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...
Magazine, Issue 3 (brief overview of Landy's work and commentary on ''Nourishment'').
Paper on ''Scrapheap Services''Man in Oxford Street is Auto-destructiveTate: Michael Landy on the Scrap Heap
The artist talks about the influence of
Jean Tinguely Jean Tinguely (22 May 1925 – 30 August 1991) was a Swiss sculptor best known for his kinetic art sculptural machines (known officially as Métamatics) that extended the Dada tradition into the later part of the 20th century.Chilvers, Ian; Gl ...
on his work. 3 November 2009.
TateShots: Michael Landy
The artist on his drawing of portraits. 9 October 2008.
Breaking-News Athens
{{DEFAULTSORT:Landy, Michael 1963 births Living people British installation artists Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London Alumni of Loughborough University Royal Academicians Artists from London English contemporary artists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire