When London Was Cool and Tokyo Was Rich —Boom, Britpop and the Bubble of the '90s

POST-WHATEVER with Ken Nishikawa · May 7, 2026 · 18m

A visit to YBA & Beyond — British Art in the '90s from the Tate Collection at the National Art Centre Tokyo recently stopped me in my tracks. It was all je ne sais quoi then, Now it's a period piece. Which, of course, is exactly what "contemporary" art eventually becomes — the clue was always in the name.

That visit became the seed of Episode 6.

The 1990s began with the end of the Cold War — which some historians call World War Three — and ended with 9/11, which triggered the ongoing conflict between the Christian and Islamic worlds, already being called World War Four by some. Which makes…