Mark Wallinger

British artist Mark Wallinger was a tutor at Goldsmiths at the time of the YBA boom of the late 80s and early 90s. He is one artist in whose career one can see a definite line of progression from his early paintings that explored notions of class, royalty, and nationalism to his recent more conceptual works.

Whilst his influence upon the YBAs is tangible it is possibly not as great as the influence that they in turn had upon him. From the mid 90s his work took a distinctly conceptual turn: 1995 saw him buy a racehorse and name it 'A Real Work of Art', with the intention of entering it in various competitions. Unfortunately it got injured after only one race.

In 2007, Wallinger won the Turner Prize for his work 'State Britain' a recreation of Brian Haw's anti-Iraq protest outside the Houses of Parliament. Aspects of this work were criticized by Stuckist and perennial pedant Charles Thomson.

Wallinger also achieved a degree of media notoriety for a video of himself dressed in a bear suit.

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