Catalogue relating to an exhibition, 2000
Published by: National Touring Exhibitions/South Bank Centre
Year published: 2000
Number of pages: 160
ISBN: 1 85332 204 0

The British Art Show 5 was curated by Pippa Coles, Matthew Higgs and Jacqui Poncelet. Over ten months, the exhibition was shown at multiple venues in the following cities: Edinburgh, 8 April - 4 June 2000, Southampton, 23 June - 20 August 2000, Cardiff, 8 September - 5 November 2000, and Birmingham, 25 November 2000 - 28 January 2001, As with the publications accompanying other manifestations of the British Art Show, this was a substantial catalogue. 

Contents as follows:

Preface, Susan Ferleger Brades, Director, Hayward Gallery

Pippa Coles, Matthew Higgs and Jacqui Poncelet (the exhibition’s selectors) interviewed by Judith Bumpus

Ars Brevis, Vita Longa / Success Can be Overcome, text by Matthew Higgs

British Art and the British Art Show 1976 - 200, text by Tony Godfrey

Artists and Works, Texts by Marcelo Spinelli

Chronology: Art and Society 1975-2000, Helen Luckett

From the Preface:

“Organised by the Hayward Gallery as part of its National Touring Exhibitions programme, The British Art Show is the most ambitious exhibition in that programme and, on a consistent basis, nationally. Over the twenty-five years of its history, it has been unrivalled in its scope and unprecedented in its outreach, occupying, especially in its recent manifestations, galleries and other spaces across each city on its tour, and reaching hundreds of thousands of people.

The first British Art Show was mounted in 1979/80, and the series has continued every five years since, each exhibition surveying British art produced in the preceding five years and providing an important barometer, capturing and reflecting particular moments in British art. It is inevitable that this exhibition, the fifth, will also be considered in the context of the millennium, and perhaps now, more than ever, visitors to the exhibition will seek to identify through it the state of British art and an indication of the direction in which it is going.”

Each artist was represented by a short biography and images or text relating to their practice, over two pages. The essays by Matthew Higgs and Tony Godfrey were illustrated with a range of images relating to artists and to the previous manifestations of the British Art Show.