The troubles and triumphs of Britain’s young people are examined in the Turner Contemporary’s new exhibition Nothing In The World But Youth. With youth culture such a hot topic on today’s news agenda, Chris Price looks at the collection of art everyone has to see.

In suits protected by Parkas, the mods charged the leather-clad rockers on the beaches of Margate in 1964.

Two were taken to hospital with knife wounds and 51 were arrested over the May weekend, sparking off a moral panic.

Sound familiar? Following the recent riots, it could not be more appropriate that the Turner Contemporary’s second exhibition takes a look at society’s view of teenage lives.

Some of our foremost artists have loaned works to the Nothing In The World But Youth exhibition, beginning this weekend, including Henry Moore, Sarah Lucas, Andy Warhol, Mark Leckey, Jim Lambie, David Hockney and Dartford-born Peter Blake. The exhibition was planned long before last month’s disturbances but the relevance could not be greater.

Youth culture is embedded in Margate’s history. From the mods and rockers of the 1960s to the hooded groups of the present day, the posturing of young people has often been met with revulsion in the town. Anxieties of today no longer seem so different to those of yesteryear.

The blur between youthful desire and the immoral is reinforced next month when Rodin’s The Kiss comes to the Turner. It depicts 13th-century Italian noblewoman Francesca da Rimini, who was immortalised in Dante’s Inferno. She fell in love with her husband’s younger brother after reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere together. Yet the couple were discovered and killed by Francesca’s husband.

All this brings to the fore the tensions associated with the young but Nothing In The World But Youth also celebrates the beauty of youth and its abandon.

The early works of JMW Turner show off youth’s innocent side and how in the young there can be signs of great futures ahead. He first came to Margate aged 11, having been sent to school in Love Lane in the Old Town. He returned to sketch in the seaside town aged 21 and in the 1820s became a regular visitor.

His 15 works on show include a miniature self-portrait done around 1790, a sketch of his mother Mary Turner from around 1791, the oil painting Crossing the Brook 1815 and watercolours of Margate including St John’s Church, Margate, 1784, A Street in Margate and Looking Down to the Harbour, 1784.

Turner remarked to critic John Ruskin that “the skies over Thanet are the loveliest in all Europe” and it was his appreciation at a young age of this unique quality of light that led Turner to create some of his finest works on Margate’s shores.

But when it comes to summing up the joys of being young, we defy anyone not to raise a smile at Santiago Mostyn’s Callie on the Sandbank from Excerpt All Most Heaven.

Oscar Wilde said “youth is wasted on the young” but try telling that to any one of the smiling faces in this snapshot of pure hedonism.

Youth culture

Best known for designing the sleeve for the Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Peter Blake is among Britain’s best-known pop artists.

Born in Dartford in 1932, his contribution to Nothing In The World But Youth is his Self-Portrait with Badges from 1961.

The picture is thought to have been based on Thomas Gainsborough’s famous portrait The Blue Boy but Peter’s blue fabric is denim, not silk – a material associated at the time with American youth culture.

This is emphasised by his baseball boots and badges, and the magazine dedicated to Elvis Presley, who had just become well known in Britain.

Nothing In The World But Youth runs at the Turner Contemporary in Margate from Saturday, September 17 until January 8. Rodin’s The Kiss will be at the gallery from Tuesday, October 4 until Tuesday, October 2, 2012. Admission free. Call 01843 233000.