Perhaps because of the incandescence of the YBAs in the 1990s, British art in the 1980s often gets short thrift in terms of column inches in
histories of modern and contemporary art, but — as Ikon's new show on the decade should demonstrate — it was a period of
free - wheeling experimentation, in which figurative painting made a comeback, the variety of abstract styles increased, installation art grew in ambition and cut - and -
paste appropriation prevailed.